


The Conservator

by Harthad



Series: The Curator [3]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Stargirl (TV 2020), Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Gen, I promise it's the last one, Kidnapped Barry Allen, Kidnapping, Last book here we go!, Matter of Life and Death, Multiple Crossovers, Museums, Please Don't Hate Me, Psychological Trauma, Time Shenanigans, Time Travel, Torture, Victorian, all the feels, no beta we die like men, where is the woolly mammoth?, you'll just have to read to find out!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 23
Words: 29,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29446764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harthad/pseuds/Harthad
Summary: FINALE TO THE CURATOR! Barry and Iris have been lost to time, pulled into a wormhole by none other than Elliott Pax. Can the Doctor, STAR Labs, Supergirl, and the JSA figure out where they are, and more importantly, how to bring them back before Elliott finishes his master plan of revenge? Can Barry let go of the possibility that Elliott may not have followed him backward in time, and concentrate on finding a way home? Or are the coincidences of running into Elliott's grandfather just too large to ignore? And what's up with the arrival of a Woolly Mammoth in the new Central City Museum anyways? Find out all the answers to the past -- and the present -- in this last installment. Have fun!
Relationships: Barry Allen/Iris West, Jenny Flint/Madame Vastra
Series: The Curator [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2128659
Comments: 7
Kudos: 11





	1. Fallen Out Of Time

PREVIOUSLY...

_“Barry, watch out!” Iris screamed, but it was too late. Elliott Pax emerged from the wormhole, his eyes alight with murderous rage. Barry cried out as Elliott stabbed him through the stomach with another Reality Rod, blue lightning crackling and writhing all the way through the wound. Barry fell to the ground, putting a hand to his stomach. Iris ran over, grabbing his hand._

_“No,” she whispered. “No, stay with me, Barry, I’m here –”_

_“You haven’t told him yet, have you?” Elliott sneered, and Barry met Iris’ eyes. “How you changed time, the very thing you’ve been telling your husband not to do for years and years, all so you could save him – well look at what you did, Iris! You haven’t saved anyone, have you?!”_

_“Iris,” Barry gasped. “What did you do?”_

_“It’s fine,” Iris said, her voice strained. “It’s going to be alright, Barry, stay with me –”_

_“Time has a way of happening in the end, doesn’t it?” Elliott grinned. “You can’t stop me forever, Iris. And you can’t stop time, either.”_

_“Leave us alone!” Yolanda shouted, and suddenly she was right there, shoving Elliott back into the wormhole. “We’ve had enough of this, of all of this! Just leave us alone!”_

_Elliott grabbed ahold of the TARDIS floor, gritting his teeth as the wormhole sucked him back into the darkness. He made one last desperate attempt, grabbing onto Barry’s ankle so that they were both pulled back. Barry looked up at Iris._

_“Let me go,” he whispered. She shook her head, and grabbed his hand so tightly she thought she might never lose him again._

_“Never,” she whispered back._

_Elliott let go of the TARDIS floor._

_Barry and Iris fell back into the wormhole._

_It closed with a deafening snap, and all turned silent._

***

UNKNOWN LOCATION

Iris noticed the people around her first.

She sat up, blinking a haze away from her vision as more and more people crowded around her, looking down at her. She felt something solid and cool – pavement, apparently, probably a street. Why was she in the middle of the road? She had fallen, right – but what happened after?

“Miss? Miss, are you alright?”

Iris blinked tiredly, the forms above her quickly solidifying into concrete shapes of actual humans dressed in increasingly strange, historical clothes. A man wearing gloves and a brown suit helped her up from the ground, peering down at her from over his spectacles. She turned and a few more friendly but concerned faces looked back at her: women in dresses with long sleeves and hats, like she’d seen in pictures of her great-grandmother from the 1800s. But that was impossible. There was no way she –

“Miss, what’s your name?” someone else asked, and Iris glanced over. Anything she wanted to say felt slow and sluggish, like she was forcing out words.

“Iris,” she said, registering for the first time how dazed she sounded. She blinked a couple more times, some clarity of mind rushing back to her – the wormhole, Elliott, and oh god –

“My husband,” she said immediately, scanning the little crowd that had gathered around her. “I was with my husband, he was hurt, have you seen him?!”

“Miss, there was just you –”

“Step aside! Please – let me through – hello! Yes, hi –” A woman with dark brown hair pulled back in a bun pushed herself through the crowd to Iris.

“Iris West-Allen?” she asked immediately, and Iris blinked.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Jenny Flint, Mrs. West-Allen,” Jenny said, grim. “The Doctor sent me and my wife to help as soon as we could.”

Iris shook her head, stumbling out past the crowd. “No, I have to find my husband –”

“Mrs. West-Allen, you’ve just fallen through a wormhole and out of time, you need rest –”

“Where am I?” Iris whirled back around. “Where is this place?”

Jenny met her eyes. “You’re in Central City, marm.”

“This is not Central City,” Iris said, unable to disguise the shock in her voice as she looked around again at the tall stately marble and stone buildings that only vaguely looked familiar. Jenny ran in front of her before she could start walking forward again.

“It is, I assure you,” she said. “Only – you’ve landed in 1902.”

***

CENTRAL CITY

1902

“Impossible,” Iris insisted. She broke away from Jenny, the crowd dispersing as they moved on to care about newer and greater things. “I need to find Barry –”

“There was no one else with you, Mrs. West-Allen, I swear it –”

“No,” Iris said, taking another wild look around. The streets were dark except for the street lamps and their soft glows at every corner. She should be able to see something, any sign of him. “No, we were together, we fell into the wormhole together, I know he’s here –”

She froze, catching sight of a strange light down the street. It wasn’t a soft glow, and it wasn’t from any of the streetlamps or candles in the windows. It was a streak of yellow lightning. She watched as it wavered back and forth, getting closer with every minute. Iris blinked as it would disappear out of sight for a moment or two as she held her breath, and then reappear just as she thought it wouldn’t.

“It’s him,” Iris murmured, grabbing onto Jenny’s arm as she stood beside her, also watching. “It’s Barry –”

“Wait!” Jenny cried as Iris broke away from her again and started running towards the spot where the lightning flashed last. Barry appeared from the flash, stumbling forward into Iris’ arms. She caught him as he almost fell, staring at him in horror. The Reality Rod was still sticking out of his stomach, crackling with blue light. Barry slipped and fell, staring around him in a daze as Iris tried to help him up again.

“Where are we –”

“Central City,” Iris answered immediately, conveniently leaving out the part about how they were apparently now stuck in the past. “Just hang on Barry, we’ll get you help –"

“Iris –” Barry mumbled, grabbing onto her arm. “Iris, you’re okay –”

“I’m fine, I promise Barry, it’s you who – Barry!”

Jenny ran up to Iris just as Barry collapsed again, the Reality Rod crackling angrily. Iris turned, meeting her eyes in desperation.

“Can you help him?”

Jenny nodded.

“I know someone who can.”


	2. Questions and Time

***

Light filtered in through the sheer curtains with the breeze, warming the small couch and the room beyond. Barry slowly came to, blinking his eyes open to discover a plain ceiling and a candelabra hanging above him. He sat up, glancing around at the couch and the windowsill, the blue wallpaper and the assortment of plants that adorned the small sitting room. There was even a piano in the corner.

This wasn’t his apartment. Elliott had never imprisoned him someplace as nice as this, either. Barry pinched his own arm hard, just to be sure. But then he remembered the Reality Rod with a sickening feeling, and decided to investigate on his own terms.

He glanced down at his clothes, once again finding he was wearing something unfamiliar. He was dressed in something he thought his great-grandfather would wear back in the Victorian era, another oddity that was quickly becoming increasingly worrying. Barry stared down, finally registering he was no longer stuck through with the Reality Rod like some kind of skewer. There was no more blood, and more importantly, no more wound. He looked up again, catching sight of his face in a mirror on the wall across from him. He looked paler than usual, drawn, anxious and worried. Maybe the worried part wasn’t that new. He ran to the mirror, gritting his teeth as he suddenly faltered halfway through. Had the Reality Rod done something to his speed? He finally made it to the mirror, something else catching his eye in the window behind him. No – on the street through the window. Barry ran through the house, racing to the door and rushing out onto the streets outside. He turned around in a slow circle, looking at what had to be impossible. All around him were dirt roads, black carriages and people in fancy Victorian dresses, skirts and suits. Barry did a double take between where he was standing and the door of the apartment, which was now swinging open. He hadn’t run that fast to immediately run this far into the past, had he?

“Mr. Allen?”

Barry looked back at the apartment. A woman wearing a dark veil stood there, beckoning him back inside. He glanced out at the streets again, still in disbelief, before walking back to this strange woman.

“Look, who are you? Do you know where I am?”

“Come inside, Mr. Allen. All your questions will be answered.”

Barry stopped on the edge of the sidewalk, staying where he was. “Have you seen my wife?”

“Iris is at work, Mr. Allen. Please – come in. I assure you things will make a great deal more sense in a moment.”

Barry took a moment to consider, hating the way his fear gnawed away at him like some horrible kind of animal. He took a breath and stepped forward to run back into the house, when a stabbing pain sucked all the breath from his body. He looked down, expecting to see the Reality Rod again, but there was nothing. He clutched his stomach, falling to his knees as the veiled woman – no, she had taken off her veil now, revealing a green scaled face – _what?!_ – ran to help him. Barry grabbed her arm, meeting her eyes with one last question before he fell unconscious once again.

_“Iris –”_

***

Barry heard voices before he could see again. He blinked open his eyes, deja-vu stealing over him like a wet blanket as he looked up to see the ceiling, the chandelier, the wallpaper all from earlier. But this time –

“You’re awake,” Iris smiled at him as he sat up on the couch, taking his hand in hers gently. Barry took a moment to take everything in: his wife, dressed in the same Victorian clothes he’d seen people wearing earlier; a young woman dressed as a maid standing in the doorway, and next to her, the green scaled woman from when Barry had rushed out into the street. He looked down. No more Reality Rod, no more pain, and most importantly, no more Elliott. He looked back at Iris, taking in her tight-lipped, relieved smile; the way she held his hand as if she was afraid she’d never see him again. He squeezed back.

“I’m awake,” Barry said, and took another look at Iris.

“How long was I out?”

“The first time –” Iris’ smile disappeared. “It’s been nearly two months, Barry. You’ve been in a coma ever since we –”

“Another coma?” Barry asked, hanging his head.

“Ever since we arrived back in the past,” Iris finished quietly. She took her hand from Barry’s grasp and hugged his shoulder. “Madame Vastra said you collapsed again when you ran out into the street?”

“Madame –” Barry looked around until the green-scaled woman stepped up. “That’s you?”

“My wife, Jenny and I have been taking care of you, Mr. Allen,” Vastra said. “We were able to extract the Reality Rod from you almost immediately, but believed you were still infected by whatever energy Elliott used to create it. As it turns out, we were right. It appears to be activated by the speed force, whenever you use it. Elliott must have locked onto your energy itself, which was scrambled by the wormhole when you fell through time. We believe –”

“Hold up,” Barry held up his hands. “Wait. Wormhole?”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Iris asked, turning to face him head on.

“I...” Barry glanced away. “The wormhole appearing in the TARDIS. Then Elliott stabbed me, and then...”

“Nothing else?” Iris pushed, pursing her lips. Barry shook his head.

“It was like – everything was scrambled. I saw – we were at dinner with the Paxes again, and then I was holding the Reality Rod, but we were in the TARDIS at the same time, and I –” Barry glanced over at Iris.

“I looked at you, and you said you’d never let me go,” he said. Iris smiled faintly.

“And after that?” she asked.

“Nothing until this morning,” Barry said, then did a double take. “It’s... still the same day, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Jenny answered. “You need more rest, Mr. Allen. We need to figure out exactly what is wrong and how it could still be connected to your speed –”

“No, wait,” Barry interrupted, standing up. “We – we can’t just be stuck here, right? I mean – the Doctor’s coming.” He whirled around at everyone’s blank looks. “The Legends – they’ve got to be on their way by now, we’re practically walking abberations ourselves – surely time is breaking apart?”

“Barry, no one’s come at all,” Iris said, also standing up. She slowly approached her husband like someone approaching a frightened deer. “We can’t explain it, but – there’s something preventing all time travelers from reaching us, all over the city. No one can get in or out at all.”

“So –” Barry paused, meeting her eyes. “What are you saying?”

“I –” Iris bit her lip. “I’m saying we might be stuck here, for a very long time – Barry!”

But it was too late. The doors to the house flapped open, swinging from the force of the lightning as Barry ran as far as he could. He skidded to a stop just on the outskirts of the city, staring around aghast at what surrounded him. A great, shining, murky barrier separated the rest of the outside world from Central City, looking for all the world like it shimmered in and out of existence. Barry ran at it once, twice, trying to break free, but it barely moved an inch. Barry slammed his shoulder into the wall, expecting it to give way, but only bounced back onto the road for his trouble. He groaned, getting to his feet to try again. There had to be a way out, some way to get out of here –

“Young man, are you alright?” asked an older man’s voice as Barry landed back on the street again for the fifth time in a row. He was helped up and pulled to his feet by a greying, balding man dressed in a bow-tie and peacoat – _a_ _squat, balding man wearing a bow-tie and a_ –

“Young man,” the look-alike to Elliott Pax frowned at Barry, who stared at him in shock, frozen to his core. “Young man, I asked if you were alright? You had a nasty fall right there –”

“You don’t know who I am,” Barry whispered in horror. The man furrowed his brows.

“Well, if you give me your name, I’d be happy to introduce myself –”

“How are you here?!” Barry took a step back, flailing his arms wildly as he tried to regain some control over himself. But he was too freaked out, too overloaded by the possibility of Elliott having followed him and Iris, of Elliott being here –

“Who are you?!” Barry shouted at the man, and people started to look his way. He didn’t notice as a black carriage pulled up to the side of the road behind him, Iris hopping out alongside Jenny and Madame Vastra. “Tell me who you are – tell me you’re not him –”

“Who are you talking about?” The man asked, trying to smile hesitantly. “My dear boy, I mean you no harm –”

“That is exactly what Elliott Pax would say,” Barry hissed fiercely, striding forward before Iris caught up to him and grabbed his hand to pull him back.

“Barry! Barry, listen to me,” she tried to say, tried to get Barry to look at her. But he glared at the all-too-familiar man, refusing to give in.

“It’s him, Iris, he followed us here –”

“That’s not Elliott, Barry!” Iris shouted. Barry finally looked at her as Jenny rushed to assure the man that Barry was alright, that there had just been a mix-up and that the poor dear had recently been through so much and he was just confused, you can go on your way now.

“It is him, Iris –” Barry protested, but Iris shook her head, putting a hand on his cheek and forcing him to look down at her.

“We’re in the past, Barry, remember? That is not Elliott – maybe his great-grandfather, we don’t know. Barry, please. You’re alright. Elliott isn’t here.”

“Then how –” He looked back at the man Jenny was leading away, pointing wildly. “Then what are the chances that we land at the same time that Elliott’s great-grandfather is just walking around Central City, Iris -- ?”

“I don’t know, but –”

“He’s waiting for us here, he’s got to be here somewhere!” Barry’s voice rose again. Iris stepped away, shaking her head.

“Barry, it’s been two months – two entire months since we fell out of that wormhole. If Elliott were here – if Elliott was truly here, don’t you think he would’ve tried something, anything by now?”

“Iris –”

“Listen,” Iris tried to say anything that would make Barry at least see reason. “Listen, Barry, Elliott isn’t here. We can’t waste any more time waiting for him to surprise us again when we should be focusing on trying to figure out a way to get back home.”

Barry shook his head, rubbing his eyes. “Fine,” he said, relenting just for the moment. He glanced back over his shoulder, but the elder Mr. Pax – if that really was who he was – was nowhere to be found. “Fine, let’s – you’re right. Let’s just focus on getting home.”

“I better not wake up in the middle of the night and found you’ve built an entire case board around this man,” Iris warned. Barry cracked a smile.

“I promise!” he said, throwing his hands up in the air. “I promise.” He’d never build a case board in their bedroom where anyone could find it so easily. He’d have to find somewhere else.

“We’ll have to find you a job,” Iris suggested suddenly, gently wrapping her arm around Barry’s and leading him back to the carriage where Vastra and Jenny were waiting for them. “The girls at the telephone office have gotten tired of this coma excuse I’ve given you.”

“Excuse?” Barry scoffed. “What’ve they been asking?”

“They actually think I’ve made you up,” Iris laughed. “A working woman, who’s husband is nowhere to be found and has been in a coma for weeks on end... it’s not the usual story you find in 1902, apparently.”

“So you didn’t lead with, my husband and I are from one hundred and nineteen years in the future and we were sent to the past after dealing with an evil, megalomaniacal nine-year-old who loves museums and is hell-bent on seeking revenge against my family for a crime we didn’t commit?”

Iris shoved him lightly, already smiling back. “Of course not. I started with, my husband is the fastest man alive who’s unfortunately suffered a life-threatening injury after one of his weekly run-ins with a supervillain. They lost interest after that.”

Barry smiled down at her, entwining his fingers with hers. “Sure they did.”

“It’s the truth!” Iris laughed. Madame Vastra cleared her throat.

“Iris is correct about finding a job for you, Barry. We must keep up pretenses as much as possible if we are not to alter the timeline any more than it has already been.”

“Alright,” Barry conceded, thinking for a moment. “Hey – does the CCPD exist in 1902?”


	3. Wormholes & Other Problems

STAR LABS

2021

“Still no sign of them,” Cisco said blandly as Ralph entered the lab, stopping the question before it inevitably came out. Ralph only frowned, glancing at Caitlin for confirmation. She nodded her agreement reluctantly. Even the Doctor was sitting down, spinning in one of the leftover office chairs. For two whole months, everyone had been in the computer room at STAR Labs, testing and tweaking the algorithm for any sign of Barry and Iris throughout the multiverse.

They hadn’t found any sign of them. Kara had dragged Alex and Courtney and the rest of the JSA on a reconnaissance mission (Kara’s words, not anyone else’s. Cisco assumed they were going to the library again) that morning, and hadn’t returned. They’d alerted the Legends straight away as well, getting in touch with Sara and Ava as soon as possible after the wormhole closed, but they’d had no contact with them for months. When it became clear the TARDIS wasn’t going to be able to find Barry and Iris, no matter how many signals the Doctor sent out, Cisco had nearly given up. He was used to being able to track something, anything, even the smallest glimpse of anything at all using algorithms, software, the whole thing. But with this, and apparently everything that involved Elliott Pax and his game of nightmares, Cisco felt like he was walking around in the dark.

If Iris were here, she would have inevitably been the one to insist that Barry was still alive. But she was gone too, and Joe hardly ever visited STAR Labs anymore. He said he would stick to his job, and the team at STAR Labs could stick to theirs. Even Cecile hardly visited anymore. Of course, Baby Emma was now a toddler, so she had her hands full most of the time. Still...

“We’ve found something!” Courtney yelled as she ran into the computer lab, making Ralph jump so high that he spilled his coffee. “We found a note from Barry and Iris –”

“A note?” Cisco asked, immediately sitting up. “What do you mean?”

“They’re alive,” Kara said, rushing into the lab. Alex followed right behind her, carrying a book of records that she plopped down on the desk, sending papers flying. Caitlin caught one of them before it flew away, staring at it in bemusement.

“It’s from 1902,” she said. “Look – it’s Barry’s signature, here.”

“Barry purchased a house in 1902?” Cisco frowned, taking the paper from her. “Not a house – he signed the lease on an apartment... in 1902?”

“1902,” the Doctor said suddenly. “Well, don’t you see? It’s obvious! They’ve been stuck in the past this whole time!”

“And why weren’t we searching for records from them in the past instead of using Cisco’s algorithms?” Ralph asked. Cisco shook his head.

“They should have still been found by the code, it’s not like they’ve completely disappeared altogether – and anyways, why was Barry signing an apartment lease in 1902?!”

“It’s dated eight months from then,” Caitlin continued. “September 1902.”

“At least we know Barry’s alive,” Ralph interjected. “I mean, he can’t sign an apartment lease if he’s, you know...”

“Unless something’s stopping us from seeing them at all,” the Doctor muttered. “Cisco! That wormhole energy – did you set the algorithm to search for that too, or just Barry and Iris?”

“No, I set it to search for the wormhole, I think I would’ve been a fool not to –” Cisco brought up the algorithm up on the computer, expanding so they could see across the timeline. He sat back, gesturing. “See? Nothing?”

“Except a very small spike over 1902,” the Doctor murmured. She soniced the computer and the timeline zeroed in on the year, as well as a location and place. She stood back up, pointing.

“See? Central City, 1902. No wonder we haven’t been able to find any sign of Barry and Iris – the wormhole energy has been masking their signatures this entire time.”

“Not the wormhole,” Caitlin said, her voice hushed. “Elliott.”

She held up another paper. On it was the signature of Elliott Pax.

“Even worse,” Kara interrupted. She pushed her way forward and set down a faded yellow diary on the desk emblazoned with the initials EP. “Alex and I found Elliott’s Museum office, along with his diary. And it’s all about Barry. Like, all about him. Seriously. This man was obsessed, and not in a healthy way.”

“That’s not Elliott Pax’s diary,” Beth interrupted, staring at everybody in horror after Chuck corrected her. “That’s his grandfather’s.”

***

“Kara?”

Alex found her sister sitting outside on the balcony, overlooking Central City with her arms crossed over her chest. Kara glanced over, suppressing a sigh as she faced back to look over the rest of the city.

“Before you ask,” Kara said. “I’m fine. I just needed a moment.”

Alex said nothing. She joined Kara, leaning on the railing next to her. A cool breeze whipped past both of them.

“It’s hard, isn’t it,” Alex finally said after a moment. Kara nodded, finally releasing the breath she hadn’t known she was holding.

“I just hate – I just hate not being able to do anything besides research,” Kara admitted. “We went to the library, we found Elliott’s office – and now? We read, and read, and read through the ravings of some utter madman who wants to trap and kill one of my best friends and his wife, and hope by the time we’re finished reading, the last entry isn’t about how he succeeded! Alex –”

She turned to look at her sister, throwing her hands up in the air. “Alex, I don’t know what else we can do.”

“We’ll do what we always do,” Alex said gently. “We will save them, Kara. The Doctor’s started working on a plan to get the TARDIS through the barrier – and the Legends will get back to us soon.”

“You’re just trying to make me feel better,” Kara mumbled. Alex hit her shoulder.

“I’m doing a good job of it, aren’t I?”

“Maybe a little,” Kara tried to smile. “I’m tired of waiting around. We can’t exactly – storm 1902 and rescue Barry and Iris from something that hasn’t even happened to them yet.”

“No,” Alex said slowly. “But we can look for more information at the source.”

Kara shot her a quizzical glance.

“We have Elliott Pax’s diary, what else is there?”

“Elliott kept thousands of documents of files in his office, probably even older records that we didn’t get a chance to sort through and bring back,” Alex said. “What if we find a note – an actual clue from Barry and Iris? Some sort of way to get to them, for real?”

“You think they’ve left us instructions?” Kara furrowed her brows.

Alex nodded. “We’re definitely not going to find anything about trying to get them back home from Elliott Pax Sr. in there. We need to do a search of our own.”

Kara nodded. “Then let’s go. You good to fly?”

“Always,” Alex said, a determined glint in her eyes. Kara grabbed her hand and flew them both up into the air, high above the city before whooshing off to the small corner of the city where they’d discovered Elliott’s office. The Doctor ran out onto the balcony just as they left, waving the diary around.

“Wait!” she yelled after them. “Wait, Kara! We found a note from Iris – you need to come back!”

But Kara didn’t listen. She longed to actually do something to help, not just sit around and decipher clues. Searching through Elliott’s office was the way to do that. She just had to prove it.


	4. Justice & Answers

CENTRAL CITY

1902

ONE WEEK LATER

“And why are you interested in this sort of job, son?”

Barry hesitated. No one covered being from the future and thus knowing infinitely more about CSI and detective work than anyone could even dream of knowing in the early nineteen-hundreds. No one covered how not to give that sort of answer in a job interview, either. He’d walked into the CCPD in a bit of a daze, caught off guard by how familiar and utterly foreign it looked and felt to him. At least he’d been on time for the interview – the same hadn’t been said about his first interview with Captain Singh at the time, after he’d graduated college. Did they have degrees for detective work back in 1902? He couldn’t remember. So Barry sat tall, cleared his throat, and said,

“I think people deserve justice, sir. And I want to help them get it, solving crimes or by any way I can.”

The police commissioner gave him a withering stare, shuffling the papers on the desk in between them. Barry didn’t even remember his name. Alfred something? It was long, he knew that. He met the man’s eyes, trying to guess what he was thinking. Why did he feel so tense? He battled supervillains on a daily basis, it seemed. Why did a job interview scare him so much?

“You know,” the police commissioner said, leaning back in his chair. “Every kid who walks through those doors gives an answer just like yours, thinking I’ll be impressed somehow. And yet – I don’t think any of them ever mean them quite as much as you just did, Mr. Allen.”

“So –” Barry blinked. “Am I in?”

“Yes, yes, you’re hired,” the police commissioner said gruffly, already waving him out the door. “Report in early tomorrow, seven o’clock on the dot to Detective Howard, I better not find out that you’re late or you’ll be out the door faster than –”

“Of course, completely understand,” Barry said, jumping to his feet and walking back out the door as fast as he could. “Thank you, sir. You won’t regret this, sir –”

“Seven o’clock on the dot, Allen!” The police commissioner yelled. The door slammed shut, and Barry grinned. He hadn’t felt this at home in weeks. He waited until no one was looking at him, then ran through the precinct, flying past everyone in a blur. Barry ran to the doors, narrowly missing a man who looked familiar – almost too familiar –

“Hey!” Barry skidded out into the street, then ran back at a normal human place to catch up with the man as he walked inside the CCPD. “Hey – Mr. Pax, right?”

The man turned to face him. Barry couldn’t help the chill that ran down his spine when he met the man’s cool gaze, only for it to be broken by a smile.

“Mr. Allen!” Elliott Pax exclaimed, reaching out to shake Barry’s hand rather vigorously. “I had hoped it was you Commissioner Banner was interviewing today. And you won the job, I see! I am very glad to see you up and about and recovered – your wife’s friend explained to me you were in a coma?”

“For two months, yes sir,” Barry said, trying to hide the fact that he was grimacing at how tightly the man had held his hand. “I was injured –”

“Give it no more thought, Mr. Allen,” Pax assured him. “I do not blame you one bit. Anyone who went through what you did would have been rattled. I am very glad to see you on the mend.”

“Thanks,” Barry said distantly, catching up to him after a moment. “Uh – what did, what did Iris tell you, by any chance?”

“Do not worry one bit, my dear boy,” Mr. Pax said, and again Barry felt frozen to his core. But Pax turned, smiling that friendly smile again, and Barry at least tried to relax, even if he still didn’t trust him. “I won’t tell a soul, I promise.”

“Yeah, but –”

“Mr. Allen? Why are you still here?!” Commissioner Banner yelled. “Your first day isn’t until tomorrow!”

“Uh, I was just – I was just leaving –”

“No worries, Commissioner Banner,” Mr. Pax interrupted. “It is entirely my fault I kept Mr. Allen. I hope to see you around the precinct soon, son.”

“Thank you,” Barry said, shaking his hand again. He walked backward out of the precinct, turning the corner and, when he was no longer visible, ran all the way back to Madame Vastra’s apartment. He burst in through the hallway, startling Jenny and immediately apologizing as he caught the flowers she dropped.

“Is Iris home yet?” he asked, gently giving her back the flowers.

“Still another hour to go,” Jenny said, but Barry had run back out as soon as she said “hour”. She looked at the swinging door, shaking her head.

“Vastra!”

“Yes, dear?”

“Is it too early to be asking the West-Allens to be finding their own apartment?”

“About five months to go, dear.”


	5. Good Conversations

CENTRAL CITY

TELEPHONE OPERATORS OFFICE

“How’s your husband doing, Iris?”

Just once – just once, Iris wished her co-workers wouldn’t ask about Barry. It had been bad enough when she hadn’t been sure he’d wake up during those two long months, and she thought she solved the problem of too many questions on Monday when she told the girls he was finally awake. No such luck. The questions kept coming, and coming, and coming, all with the pretense of concern and sympathy, but really Iris knew they just wanted gossip. Gossip should’ve been fine, after all. All the ladies gossiped about their husbands and families here. But none of the other ladies had recently traveled in time after dealing with their husband’s own personal supervillain.

“Oh –” Iris glanced up with a half-smile. “Oh – he’s doing well, thank you. He actually went in for an interview today with the CCPD for the junior detective position.”

“Oh, wonderful!” said the woman, who’s name Iris wasn’t too sure of – wasn’t she one of the three Bettys? Betty pouted, looking just past Iris to the window to the waiting room.

“I expect that’s him now come to take you home? Since you don’t have a reason to work now that your husband’s found a job and all –”

“I’m sorry, what?” Iris asked, furrowing her brows before jumping as someone knocked on the glass window. She followed Betty’s gaze to see Barry tapping on the glass, repeatedly glancing over his shoulder like he was afraid he’d been followed. Iris excused herself, rushing out to him as fast as possible.

“Barry!” she hissed. “Barry, what is so important it couldn’t wait until I came home?”

“I’m sorry Iris, but I ran into Elliott today at work,” Barry drew her aside, lowering his voice to a whisper. Iris suppressed a sigh, trying to avoid the stares of the other women who were all crowded around the window to spy on the happy couple.

“Yes, and? What did he say?”

“He sounded like he knew what had happened to me,” Barry said, getting increasingly more agitated. “The wormhole, the Reality Rod, all of it! Iris, what if –”

But Iris was already shaking her head. “Barry, that is insane. All I told him –”

“That’s the thing!” Barry’s voice rose. “Jenny was the one who told him I’d been in a coma, right? So how did he –”

“Because he stopped by the house a few nights ago,” Iris interrupted. Barry immediately fell silent. “He was concerned about your wellbeing, wanted to make sure you were okay. I fed him some story about an accident with a carriage in the street, Barry, please tell me you’re not going to go after this man –”

“Of course not!” Barry whisper-shouted. “But don’t you think it’s a little impossible to ignore –”

“Barry,” Iris shook her head, stepping back to hold him at arm’s length. “Barry, did you get the job today?”

“What? Oh, yeah, of course I did – Iris, don’t you think –”

“I think I should get back to work,” Iris interrupted, letting go of him. He frowned slightly, finally noticing all the other women who were crowding the window, watching them.

“Iris, I –”

“Go home, Barry, please,” Iris said. “We can’t waste any more energy thinking about Elliott’s schemes that may or may not exist.”

Barry opened his mouth as if to say something more, then closed it and nodded.

“You’re right. You’re right! I’ll – see you at home.”

“No case board,” Iris insisted. Barry nodded.

“No case board. Promise.”

“I’ll see you in an hour,” Iris said, softening. She reached up and kissed her husband, pulling away and smiling faintly as she drew a hand across his cheek.

“I don’t want to see you tear yourself to pieces over Elliott again,” she said quietly. Barry nodded, a lump growing in his throat.

“I know, Iris. I know.”

“Good,” she said, and turned to face the door. All the other ladies scurried back to their posts as she went to open the door again. Iris glanced back, about to say one more thing to Barry, when she stopped short. Papers fluttered across the ground, the only sign that he’d run out as fast as he could.

Iris took a deep breath, stepping back inside the work room. She had a job to do, after all.

***

Barry did not go home. Instead, he ran to one of the city’s parks, made sure it was empty, and started running. He lost count of the laps he made well into the night, stopping only when he noticed the street lamps starting to flicker to life in the starry evening. He rushed back to the house, grabbing as many bouquets of flowers as he could on the way. Barry burst in through the front door and into the dining room as fast as he could, only to be greeted by –

“I’m pleasantly surprised, Mr. Allen,” Vastra said, snapping her pocket watch shut with a loud click. “Late for dinner.”

Barry didn’t exactly have an answer for her. He shoved the flowers on the table before running to sit down next to Iris.

“I’m sorry, time just got away from me –”

“Don’t worry about it,” Iris shook her head. “Let’s just eat.”

Barry eyed her, but joined the others in eating dinner.

“How was work?” he asked Iris after a while. She set down her fork.

“Fine, the same as always. It makes sense since I won’t be working there by tomorrow.”

“What? Why not?”

“Since I have a husband to make all the money our family needs,” Iris said, standing up from the table and walking away. Barry stared after her, confusion written all over his face. He glanced at Vastra and Jenny.

“Did I miss something?”

“I think you should ask Iris that yourself, Mr. Allen,” Jenny said delicately, rising to clear her plate. Barry ran after Iris, rushing in front of her to their bedroom doorway.

“Iris,” he said, pleading with her to stop. “Iris, whatever I did, or whatever happened today, I’m sorry. Let me fix things –”

“It’s not you,” Iris sighed, finally meeting his eyes. “The girls at work – being stuck here – it doesn’t quite make for a good conversation topic.”

“And me bringing up Elliott or being late for dinner didn’t help either,” Barry guessed. Iris nodded reluctantly.

“I had to do so much alone, Barry,” she said softly, moving past him into their shared space. “These past two months, when we barely knew if you would wake again – it was hard. But I thought – I thought we’d finally gotten rid of Elliott, thought we’d left all that behind. And then seeing him – or his grandfather – and you just went right back to that, to that place, I –”

“Iris,” Barry whispered. “Iris, I’m sorry.”

“No,” Iris held up her hand. “No, Barry, I shouldn’t have expected anything different. It was foolish of me to think it was all over, I suppose. You’re still dealing with a lot, and I should’ve respected that, and I –”

“I never want to scare you,” Barry said gently. “Or make you afraid, or any of that. But – you’re right, Iris, it’s a lot to suddenly wake up from something like that and have your whole world change.”

Iris let out a small laugh.

“You’re telling me.”

“I promised I’ll always be there for you,” Barry stepped up to her. “And I don’t intend to break that. Ever. Whatever you want from me, I’ll deliver.”

“I want you to be safe, and not afraid of men like Elliott,” Iris said, looking into his eyes. “I know that can’t come right away. I wish I could – erase the last year from our minds, pretend like it never happened.”

“You know we can’t,” Barry smiled gently. “Believe me, I would if we could too. But the Reality Rod is gone, Madame Vastra said so –”

“For good reason,” Iris choked up, and wrapped her arms around Barry.

“Promise me you won’t go looking for danger, Bar. Promise me you won’t search out Elliott just to make sure he’s really gone.”

“Iris, I –” Barry looked down at her with pain-filled eyes. Iris reached up, thumbing a tear away from his cheek. He swallowed, nodding.

“I promise. I do.”

“Good,” Iris pressed her cheek into his chest. “I just want us to be happy. To figure out a way back home.”

“We will,” Barry promised, wrapping his arms around her. “We will, Iris. We’ll see them again soon. But – things can’t be fixed or changed right away. Just – promise me you won’t lie to me if I – I don’t know. Have another nightmare, wake up and think Elliott’s in the room.”

“It’s hard seeing you like this,” Iris admitted. Barry let his chin rest on her head as they embraced.

“It’s hard being like this,” Barry said, almost smiling sadly. “Being prepared to see Elliott around every corner, being – being scared of museums, Iris, I’m afraid of museums now –”

“Hey,” Iris looked up at him, her eyes as gentle as possible. “Hey – it’ll pass. Things will change. We won’t be stuck here forever – and museums and Elliott won’t hurt as much as they do now.”

“Iris, what if – what if that never happens?” Barry asked, ending on a whisper. “What if I’m stuck like this, what if I’m always thinking about Elliott –”

“Then I’ll be here to remind you that’s not an option,” Iris answered, holding him close. “I’ll be here for you, Barry. Always.”

“Always,” Barry echoed.

***

“Iris! Iris, you need to wake up!”

Iris stirred away, blinking back sleep from her eyes. She yawned, blearily looking up and finding Jenny, of all people, leaning over her in her nightie. Iris pulled her blankets up to her chin, startled.

“Jenny? What’s –”

“It’s your husband,” Jenny whispered loudly. Iris threw back the covers and jumped out of bed, already dreading what she would find. A red streak ran around the room and through the house wildly, locking and closing all the windows and doors as fast as he could. Barry finally stumbled to a stop back in the bedroom, stopping just in front of Iris and Jenny. He looked at them through glassy, fractured eyes.

“Elliott,” he mumbled, and then ran to the window, opening up the curtain so he could stare outside into the darkness. “Elliott, we were ten years old, how could we have --”

“Barry?” Iris asked. No response. She shared a look with Jenny, who hesitantly raised her staff. Iris shook her head.

“He must be sleepwalking,” she said quietly, approaching Barry as slowly as possible. Iris placed a hand on his shoulder, watching as his hands started to vibrate impossibly fast.

“Barry?” she repeated. “Barry, it’s alright, no one’s here. Come back to bed.”

Barry looked at her through blank, clouded eyes. “What I had to do.”

Iris recoiled, almost colliding with Jenny as she realized what was happening.

“He’s remembering what was changed in the past,” she whispered. “He shouldn’t be remembering this at all –”

“Why would you kill your own parents?” Barry asked, his voice breaking. Jenny stood in front of Iris as Barry advanced upon them, his hands still moving at an impossible pace. Iris felt her back hit the dresser behind them, just about to search for something she could throw when Barry crumpled to the ground. Madame Vastra stood over him, a book raised in her hands. She met Iris’ eyes.

“We must move the Reality Rod,” she said. “It must be causing him to have some sort of reaction.”

Iris nodded, attempting to catch her breath. Gingerly stepping around Barry’s still form, she walked over to the dresser and, from the bottom-most drawer, retrieved the now-defunct Reality Rod. It didn’t crackle or reveal it had ever held any kind of lightning before. It was dormant and dead, the same it had always been since they’d removed it from Barry. But Iris could imagine, now that she held it in her hands again, that she could hear it whisper to her, see the faintest glimmer of blue lightning —

“Iris?” Jenny asked, and Iris broke free from her trance. She handed the Reality Rod over to Madame Vastra as quickly as she could, meeting the Silurian’s eyes.

“Don’t tell me where you hide it. Please. I’ve learned enough in the last year to know no one should have this kind of power.”

“Iris?” Barry’s voice suddenly floated over to her. Vastra hid the Reality Rod behind her back as Barry opened his eyes.

“How — how did I get here?” He asked, starting to sit up. “Why am I on the floor?”

“You had a nightmare,” Iris said, thinking fast. “You sleepwalked around the house, so Vastra and Jenny wanted to make sure you were alright.”

“I feel like—“ Barry touched his forehead, still groggy. “I feel like a brick fell on me or something —“

“Let’s just get back to bed,” Iris said, helping him up and back into their bed. She nodded at Jenny and Vastra, mouthing _thank you_ as they left the room.

“Another nightmare?” Barry asked once they were gone. He sat on the edge of the bed, Iris joining him a moment later. She nodded, avoiding his gaze. He followed her, his eyes softening.

“Iris, what is it you’re not telling me?”

“Barry, I –”

But Barry suddenly stood up, running to the window as fast as he could.

“Did you see that?!”

“What was it?” Iris asked, a little relieved at being spared from having to answer about the Reality Rod. She’d tell him when the time was right. Barry ignored her, running downstairs to the front door and flinging it open.

“There was someone there – I saw a camera flash –”

“A camera?” Vastra stepped out into the hall, followed by Jenny. “Mr. Allen, I assure you we’ve gone to great lengths to keep our identities and abode as secret and unassuming as possible. But running around followed by lightning might continue to give us away.”

“But there was –” Barry glanced back inside the house to see the three women staring at him, each with varying degrees of concern written all over their faces. “I thought I saw –”

“It’s late, and you had a nightmare,” Iris said, stepping forward. “Please, Bar, just come back to bed. We can investigate in the morning.”

“Morning,” Barry mumbled, reluctantly taking Iris’ outstretched arm and following her back upstairs. Vastra shut the front door after taking a quick glance outside herself. But she saw no one.

“Vastra,” Jenny whispered. “Do you think – do you think he’ll be alright?”

“Jenny,” Vastra said gravely, turning back to face her wife. “I will be infinitely more worried if Mr. Allen does not turn out to be wrong.”


	6. Interlude

***

Vastra had the right idea. There had been someone watching them. That someone replaced his binoculars and his camera, sitting back from the window he’d been staring out of across the street. He watched as the curtains in the small apartment closed shut again, obscuring everyone inside from sight. But the man smiled anyway. He’d seen all he needed to see. For now, at least.

He would continue to watch, and wait, and wait a little bit more. He had to be careful, for now, not to arouse suspicion. To play his cards right, and wait until the prize was in his grasp.

Elliott Pax was good at waiting.


	7. Photographs

CENTRAL CITY

2021

“I have discovered the source of the red streak that has been inhabiting Central City’s streets for more than two months now,” Ralph read from the dark red diary he held in his hands, perched on the edge of the desk in STAR Labs. Cisco and Caitlin ran tests and algorithms on the computers, only half-listening to the information that Ralph was throwing out.

“And it is none other than the young man who accused me of being someone I most certainly was not or did not know at the time. Furthermore, it seems we are co-workers at the Central City Police as of yesterday. I will have to keep an eye on Mr. Allen in any way I can, at all times to prove my hypothesis correct. If I am right, then he truly is the man I have been warned about, and I must work to destroy him at all costs...”

“Can’t you just skip to the end?” Cisco snapped. “Does he find Barry, or not?”

“Wouldn’t this be in the newspaper records or something?” Ralph asked, ignoring Cisco’s question. “I mean – a speedster suddenly shows up in Central City in 1902. That’d have to be front page news, wouldn’t it?”

“Front page news the same way a Silurian and her wife would be,” interrupted the Doctor, striding in with a book in her hands. “Found one of the archives Kara brought back from Elliott’s office, and these apartment records are pretty interesting if I do say so myself. Looks like two women purchased an apartment in Central City three months before any records of Barry and Iris show up in that exact same address – and they’re old friends of mine. Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint. Which means they knew Barry and Iris were coming.”

“And you didn’t tell them?” Caitlin asked. The Doctor shook her head.

“Not in this form, not that I recall. But previously – the memories are a little hazy towards the end, to be entirely honest. Victorian London and Edwardian America blends together a little too much for my liking. If only there was some way I could remember –”

“We could contact Cecile,” Cisco suggested. But Caitlin shook her head, pulling up an old photograph she’d scanned into the computer.

“Look at this – it’s Barry and someone very, very familiar.”

Everyone crowded around the computer to look, everyone’s faces darkening at once. Barry stood in front of the Central City Police Department Building, smiling widely as he shook the hand of one Elliott Pax, who handed him a shining plaque.

“That’s Elliott all right,” Cisco muttered, zooming in on the picture to take a closer look at Barry’s face. “And there’s no sign of coercion or terror in Barry’s eyes. He looks genuinely happy to be there.”

“How could we get that from a photograph?” Ralph asked, and Cisco snorted.

“Excuse me, have you ever looked at Barry before? The man’s extremely expressive.”

“Cisco’s right,” Caitlin said softly. “I think we’d know if... anything was happening.”

“What about these pictures of Iris?” The Doctor reached out and tapped on the screen. “The ones of her at the telegraph office, the posed ones with Barry too. See anything unusual?”

“Nothing,” Caitlin shook her head, but jumped as a sudden ding sounded from the computer. She clicked on the zip folder, opening it up as quickly as possible.

“Wait – here. I sent the later photos for Beth and Chuck to decode, maybe they found something different.”

She clicked on the first one, a silence descending on the room as they all realized what it was. Iris stood in very much the same position as she had in the photographs with Barry by her side, one hand resting on a chair with a vase of flowers beside her.

Only in this photograph, Barry was gone. Iris was dressed in all black, a veil draped over her head.

“Maybe it doesn’t mean what we think it does,” Ralph suggested. “Maybe – maybe it’s a cover-up, something they had to do to throw Elliott off their tail –”

Cisco swiveled to face him. “What does the end of the diary say?”

“First of all, don’t avoid the question,” Ralph said, stowing the diary away behind his back. “Second of all, I don’t think we need or want to know right now because you’ll just start getting some big ideas about how we can’t change anything that’s happened when we all know we can at least try –”

“Ralph, give me the diary –”

“Look, I wanna know as much as you do, but we can’t let one lousy photo make us give up! I mean, this is Barry and Iris we’re talking about here, they always find a way –”

“They can’t find a way if one of them is dead!” Cisco snapped. An alarm started to blare through STAR Labs, followed by red flashing lights. Nash entered the room, raising his cellphone.

“Tried to call – think we’ve got a situation. Supergirl – she’s gone missing. And so has her sister.”

***


	8. Doubt

CENTRAL CITY

1902

Barry and Iris settled into a new routine of working both in their new jobs, and building an Anti-Wormhole device from spare parts Vastra and Jenny had collected in their time-traveling days as easily as they could. Iris still went to her job at the Telegraph Agency and soon became fast friends with a few other women who enjoyed her company and that of Jenny and Vastra’s. She and Barry had even been invited to a few parties once in a while, events that gratefully went on without a hitch, even if Barry sometimes disappeared to save people in the city. Even though he was without his Flash suit, he still had his superpowers, and he still wanted to help others the best he could. Soon, newspapers reported sightings of a red blur, yellow lightning on nights without storms, people being swept up from robberies and other unfortunate situations and deposited miles away, safe. Barry went into the Central City Police Station day after day, facing mountains of paperwork that he delivered in less than an hour as soon as the Police Commissioner placed them on his desk. He caught glimpses of the elder Elliott Pax every so often, always a little unsure of which department he worked in or not. And unbeknownst to Iris, he was collecting as much information as he could on the man, whether from his coworkers or from various newspaper clippings he slipped into his pockets for safekeeping. Vastra and Jenny had an unused attic after all, and if Barry had hauled a spare case board from the precinct up there one afternoon when he came home from work, no one said anything. He was careful to hide as much as he could; not because he never wanted to tell Iris, or that she wouldn’t believe him, but that he wanted as much evidence as he could possibly gather.

In all reality, he had begun to doubt himself just a little. This Elliott Pax was always nice to him every time they spoke, always concerned about his wellbeing and always bringing him a cup of fresh coffee. The first few times he’d simply pretended to drink it, but after watching Pax drink it himself, Barry finally did. Maybe this Elliott Pax would be different this time. Maybe Elliott’s grandfather was actually a nice guy, and Barry was completely wrong. He’d take that over being trapped in a museum again.

“Allen!”

Barry glanced up from his desk, quickly stowing away the latest newspaper clipping he held in his hands. He glanced up to find Commissioner Banner glaring down at him through dark eyes.

“What are you doing?!”

“Uh – nothing,” Barry said quickly. “You need me, sir?”

“New case just came in for you. Yet another victim of the City Stalker, we’re calling him.” He slid a case folder across the desk to Barry, who opened it to see a picture of a dead body. He looked back up at Banner.

“Where is this?”

“Taken this morning,” Banner said, and Barry shot up from his chair.

“Where?” he asked, already pulling on his coat and preparing to leave.

“Central City Museum,” Banner said, and Barry froze. The only place he and Iris hadn’t visited in three long, long months. Banner turned to look at him, quirking a brow.

“Is that a problem for you, Allen? Normally you’re out of here before I can finish my sentence.”

“I – uh, not a problem, sir. No –” But in reality, Barry was reeling. Maybe his unwillingness to step inside had only prolonged this. Banner had been updating him on the whereabouts of the City Stalker’s latest prey for nearly a week now. Whoever they were, this killer had been targeting prominent city buildings and his victims, all in a square mile radius. He cursed himself inwardly for not realizing sooner. He should’ve known the killer would choose the museum. It only made sense based on the map they’d been following. But something – Barry knew what it was, of course – had stopped him. Blocked out the Central City Museum entirely.

“Allen?” Banner asked again, his voice whip-sharp. “Are you alright?”

Barry glanced at the Commissioner, and then down to his hands. They were shaking, just at a normal speed, thank god. But still – fear rose up in him like a poisonous snake, rooting him to the ground.

“The museum, Allen, did you hear me?”

“No, I –” Barry shook his head, trying to swallow. He felt cold and clammy, unable to meet Banner’s eyes. He sank down, darkness threatening to cloud his vision. He couldn’t stop it – Elliott, the Museum, Woolly, the shock of lightning, Elliott’s leering grin, and suddenly, the most horrible part, he was slipping off of the woolly mammoth, sliding to a crumpled heap outside STAR Labs as the rain beat down on his face and he closed his eyes as Iris came running up to help him –

“Barry? Barry, open your eyes.”

Barry forced his eyes open. He stared up at a cozy wooden ceiling set with a chandelier and soft lighting. He slowly started to sit up, looking around him in confusion at the bookshelves, the ornate wooden desk, the wooden paneling surrounding him, the globe in the corner and worst of all the filing cabinets adorning every wall.

“No,” Barry whispered, horror quickly overwhelming him again. He shot to his feet, just about to race out of Elliott Pax’s office when he spotted the man himself, staring at him in concern.

“Mr. Allen, you had a nasty fall in the precinct,” Elliot said, staring at him with genuine concern in his eyes. “I was able to convince Commissioner Banner to let me bring you to my apartment, as it’s closer than yours. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, I...” Barry drew his hand across his face. “Wait, how do you know my apartment’s further away?”

Elliott knit his eyebrows together. “I inquired after you soon after we met in the street that day. Your wife –”

“Iris,” Barry said suddenly, remembering. “She’s going to be so worried, I have to see her –”

“Iris has not been told that anything’s happened, Mr. Allen, please –”

“No, I – thank you for – everything, Mr. Pax, but I’m good, honest, I should – should get back home, thank you,” Barry stammered as he walked backward out of the dreaded office, unable to look at Mr. Pax’s keen, yet gentle, gaze. He turned the corner and ran out as fast as he could, yellow lightning following his steps. Elliott’s expression immediately changed as he watched Barry leave, his concern turning to pure evil.

“Finally,” he murmured. “Proof.”


	9. The City Stalker

“Iris?!” Barry yelled as he skidded into Vastra and Jenny’s house. “Iris, are you home?! We need to talk!”

He ran into the living room, stopping short as he noticed the Silurian was not alone. A young woman sat in front of her, draped in a blanket and crying into her mug of tea. Vastra glanced up as Barry lingered in the doorway, confusion jumping back into his eyes.

“Is she okay?” he asked. Vastra rose to meet him, glancing back at the woman just once.

“Her partner... he was killed by the City Stalker. I’ve offered to take her case free of charge while we investigate.”

“Yeah, uh, we’re doing some of that at work too,” Barry said. “Investigating the Stalker, I mean. His latest victim was...”

“So important that you had to run home and tell Iris?” Vastra asked. Barry grimaced.

“No, I – I collapsed at work, Commissioner Banner sent me home.”

“Collapsed again?” Vastra knit her eyebrows together. “Mr. Allen, are you feeling well enough to be here right now? Was it the Reality Rod again?”

“No, it wasn’t that,” Barry trailed off, looking inside at the woman again. “Hey, do you think she’d mind if I asked her a couple of questions? I mean, I am with the police –”

“Miss Hornbuckle has specifically requested not to speak with the police, Mr. Allen,” Vastra warned and Barry walked past her. He held up his hands slightly.

“Alright, then I’m not with the police, I just want to know more about this Stalker –”

“I don’t think I want to talk about my husband anymore,” the woman interrupted, and Barry and Vastra glanced over at her. She sniffed and grabbed her handbag, moving to stand up. Barry stopped her.

“Wait! I mean, miss, please, I think we just have a couple more questions for you if you don’t mind.”

“Mr. Allen is a fellow consultant of mine,” Vastra explained, trying to soothe the woman. She dried her eyes and gently sat back down.

“Did you get a good glimpse of the Stalker?” Barry asked. “Any distinguishable features, anything that he might’ve taken of your husband’s?”

“Only a pocketwatch,” the woman sniffed. “He had a sharp face, red hair and blue eyes, terrible, terrible blue eyes—”

While the woman spoke, Barry glanced around for a sheet of paper and a pen, turning his back on the woman so he could draw as fast as possible.

“He was terribly young as well, but what I saw on his face, it was –” The woman let out a choked sob. “It was pure hate. Just horrible –”

“There, there,” Vastra said, putting her arms around her shoulders and comforting the woman again. “There, there my dear, that’s it for today, I promise. We will avenge your husband, I promise.”

“Wait,” Barry said, producing a piece of paper with a drawing of the woman’s description from behind his back. “The Stalker -- did he look anything like this?”

“Yes,” the woman said, shock coloring her voice as she took the paper in her hands. “Yes, exactly like this. However did you –”

“This is a man named Elliott Pax,” Barry said, getting more and more passionate as he went on. “And I’m so sorry, but your husband was just one casualty in a long line of murders from his man.”

“Barry,” Vastra interrupted. Barry shook his head, showing her the drawing.

“No, I know it’s him,” he insisted. “Look at this – the Elliott from my time has been old, and nine years old, and now this new one is him as a teenager. It has to be him, Vastra! Who else could it be?”

“Mr. Allen,” Vastra took a deep breath. “The City Stalker cannot possibly be a teenage boy from the future. Jenny has been investigating this murderer for months, months before you and Iris arrived –”

“It’s all connected, Vastra, I swear,” Barry pressed on. “Why else would Jenny be looking into this case if not for –”

“Because we are private investigators, Mr. Allen!” Vastra hissed. “It is our job to investigate and help out the lesser fortunate –”

“I’ll prove it,” Barry shook his head and ran out the door as fast as he could. Vastra turned to the young woman, who stared in shock.

“He was right here – and then he –”

“A simple magician’s trick,” Vastra said quickly, helping the young woman over to the couch. “Let me get you a glass of water.”

“Vastra?” Jenny called from the hallway. She stood flat against the door, having opened it just as Barry ran out into the streets. She brushed her hair out of her face, looking over as her wife walked out to meet her.

“Barry believes the City Stalker is Elliott Pax,” Vastra said. “We must find him, and quickly. Or else –”

“No,” Jenny shook her head. “Barry won’t find anything of the sort. The City Stalker is done, Vastra. I handed him over to the police myself this afternoon.”

“Well done, my dear,” Vastra said, leaning over to kiss her while she grabbed her weapons from the umbrella stand. “Let us go save another foolish man from himself.”

“For a superhero, Mr. Allen sure is quite thick,” Jenny muttered and followed her wife out the door.

***

Barry swept through the streets of Central City as fast as he could, once again looking for Elliott. He ran circles around the Central City Museum, finally coming to a stop outside its doors. Even now, in the past, the doors looked impossibly menacing and sharp. Maybe his terror was finally catching up to him. Maybe the memories were, too. Barry shook his head, just about to take another run around the entire city. That would clear his head. That would erase Elliott and the Museum from his mind, if only for a little while. And then he would run again, and again, and again until he was done and could finally let all thoughts of Elliott go. Barry had to. It was the only way.

“Looking for someone?”

Barry whirled around. A young man with red hair, sharp cheekbones, and terrible blue eyes stared back at him.

“You know, last time you jumped right from being an old man to a nine-year-old,” Barry said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. “Why are you hitting the in-between stages now?”

“I can’t reveal my secrets to you, now can I?” The teenage Elliott grinned. “Besides, Mr. Allen, I thought you were smart. Can’t you at least guess?”

“The wormhole,” Barry offered up, his hands starting to shake. “The energy from it – aged you somehow.”

“Can’t handle that I’m alive and well, can you?” Elliott smiled tightly. “What are you going to do, Barry – lock me up? Put me behind bars? Hand me over to the police like a good detective? You know I’ll just escape again, and again, and again –”

“Barry!” Barry turned to see Jenny and Vastra running towards him, guns and staffs drawn. “Barry, that’s not –”

“Oh, but I am the City Stalker,” Elliott yelled back. “You put the wrong man behind bars, Miss Flint. I believe the death penalty is still what they give serial killers back in 1902, is it not? Congrats on sending yet another innocent life to his death, all of you.”

“Why are you doing this?” Barry asked, taking a slow step forward as Elliott turned his beady eyes onto him. “Don’t you want to stop all this – bloodlust?”

“It’s been all to find you again, Mr. Allen,” Elliott smirked. “Admittedly, it took me longer than I thought – I did have a few loose ends to tie up after all. But now I have you right where I need you.”

Jenny raised her gun the moment Elliott produced a knife from within his coat. Lightning sparked in Barry’s eyes as he prepared to run forward as the knife hurtled towards him, but stopped when he heard a strange, and all too familiar voice –

“Barry?!”

Barry looked, his gaze first morphing into shock, and then confusion as he saw who it was. Kara and Alex rushed up to the little group, dressed in modern-day clothes.

“Kara?!”

“Move!” Jenny screamed, pushing Barry out of the way before Elliott’s thrown knife could hit him. Kara flew forward, knocking Elliott off his feet and pinning him to the ground. Barry sprinted, grabbed a coil of rope, and tied the young man up as fast as he possibly could. Alex ran up to them, gently helping Jenny to her feet while Vastra also ran to help.

“How are you guys here?!” Barry exclaimed, taking a double look between Kara and Alex.

“Long story,” Kara said, but Alex shook her head.

“No, not really. We were sucked into a wormhole in _his_ office,” she said, pointing down at Elliott. He laughed.

“Another wormhole? Now that is a surprise. Turns out your wife messing with the timeline did affect more than even I thought.”

“My wife – Iris?” Barry asked. Kara and Alex exchanged a worried look. The Doctor had told them what happened soon after the wormhole incident. “What did Iris do to the –”

“He’s just trying to trick you,” Jenny interrupted. “Get in your head, Mr. Allen.”

“We will bring Mr. Pax to the precinct,” Vastra added. “Misses Danvers, it is lovely to finally meet you. I assure you Mr. Allen can bring you back to our apartment and we can work on setting you up a room in the attic space.”

“The attic?” Barry echoed. “But they can’t stay there –"

Vastra tilted her head, fixing him with a hard stare. “And whyever not?”

“No – no reason,” Barry said quickly, clearing his throat. “I’ll help – clean it out.”

“Right,” Kara said slowly, eyeing Barry as well. “And what about Elliott? How do we make sure he doesn’t escape?”

“Oh, soon it won’t matter if I escape or not,” Elliott spoke up. Everyone turned to look at him. He stared at Barry, his mouth twisting into a dangerous leer.

“You’ll find out why very, very soon, Mr. Allen. Soon, I won’t matter at all. Would you like to know the date and time of your death, or would you rather I keep that a secret?”

“How could you possibly know that?” Barry asked, though his voice turned faint.

“Easy,” Elliott taunted and winked at Kara and Alex. “I read it in a diary.”

“Alright,” Kara interrupted, striding forward. “Alex, Barry, uh – other two I don’t know yet, sorry – I’ll take Elliott to the precinct. I’ll meet you back at the apartment.”

She grabbed Elliott’s arm and shot up into the sky, flying to Central City PD as fast as she could. Barry watched her go, a troubled look already in his eyes. He turned back to Alex, sighing as she didn’t meet his eyes.

“Okay,” he said, eyeing Vastra, Jenny, and Alex. “What did Iris do that you’re all not telling me?”


	10. Shattered

CENTRAL CITY

PRESENT DAY

“So this is where you saw Kara and Alex last?” Cisco asked Nash as everyone stepped inside what remained of Elliott’s office. Discarded papers were strewn everywhere, the bookshelves and filing cabinets toppled over as if blown over by a strong wind.

“Yep,” Nash said, picking his way around the sideways-turned desk, narrowly avoiding the shattered computer and its screen. “Well – not exactly.”

“What do you mean, not exactly?” Caitlin narrowed her eyes. Nash only shrugged and pointed to the shattered window.

“Saw Kara fly into a building in this direction, so – gonna assume that window is the one she crashed through.”

“Okay, but where could they have gone?” Cisco asked, the whole situation starting to get on his nerves. “This whole place is absolutely torn apart, so either they were taken and gave up a fight, or –”

“They were swallowed,” the Doctor interrupted. She pointed to a large, deep hole in the center of the office’s wooden floors, stretching down impossibly further than it ever should have. Black veins stretched out from the center, sparking angrily.

“And where does that lead,” Ralph asked, trying to be flippant. “Hell?”

“No,” the Doctor crouched down to examine it more, tentatively picking up some of the darkness and fingering it in the palm of her hand. “This was created by an artificial wormhole. The same sort of wormhole that took Barry and Iris to the past.”

“So you’re saying Kara and Alex are in the same time as Barry and Iris?” Caitlin questioned. The Doctor nodded, stopping just before she stuck the wormhole darkness into her mouth, and brushed it off her palms.

“I believe so. If the wormhole was somehow still active as a result of Iris changing the timeline, or Elliott somehow reactivated it when they got here – then they should be our clue to the past. We can figure out –”

“Hey,” Cisco interrupted, bringing up the picture from earlier on his phone. “Hey, look at what Beth sent earlier – we got more familiar faces.”

They all looked. Sure enough, Kara and Alex had joined Barry and Iris in the grainy, black and white photograph, all dressed in old-fashioned clothing and all looking at the camera. Caitlin shot a pointed look at Cisco.

“And the other one?”

Cisco swiped up and drew in a sharp breath. Iris still wore all black and a veil, one hand resting on the back of the chair. Only this time, Kara and Alex stood next to her, both dressed in all black as well. There was still no sign of Barry.

“I’ll scan these for clues back at the lab,” Cisco said tightly. “There has to be something that we’re missing, I mean – why pose for these pictures if they didn’t want to send us clues?”

“I’ll check the diary,” Ralph added, ignoring the dark look Cisco shot him.

“Oh, you mean the diary that can give us all the answers, you’re just refusing to read to the end?”

“It might be worth it to look for a death certificate,” Caitlin said quietly. Cisco turned his glower onto her instead. “If they went to the trouble of taking this photo – there have to be more records.”

“Why would there be?!” Cisco exclaimed. “They’re all time-travelers from the future, apparently – why would they go to all this trouble unless they were trying to stay in the past?”

“I’m sure they don’t want to stay trapped in 1902,” Caitilin insisted. “They clearly haven’t figured out a way to get back yet, so –”

“You mean, Iris, Kara, and Alex haven’t,” Cisco snapped. “You know what, I’ll leave it to you. Go look for our best friend’s death certificate if that’s the proof you need! Go search for all the proof if you really want to believe Barry’s death! Meanwhile, I’m not going to give up hope. I’ll be back at the lab if you need anything.”

Cisco grabbed his jacket and stalked out the doors, glancing back as Courtney and Yolanda ran up to join them, dressed as Stargirl and Wildcat.

“What happened?” Courtney demanded. “Supergirl – she’s gone?”

“I called them,” the Doctor explained quickly as Ralph and Nash looked confused as to why part of the JSA had come so quickly. “Courtney –”

“Elliott took them too,” Yolanda said breathlessly, immediately jumping to conclusions. “Her and Alex, they’re both in the past now, aren’t they?”

“And you’re just standing around, reading?” Courtney huffed, gesturing at Ralph as he stared down at Elliott’s diary, his face going pale.

“Courtney, we’re working on a solution as fast as possible,” Caitlin tried to say, but Courtney shook her head.

“You and the rest of your team might be fine to analyze data and look for clues and whatever, but we’re used to actually going out there and doing something,” she snapped and looked at the Doctor.

“If Kara and Alex were able to get sucked back in time, that means you can now too! Come on, Doc, we gotta take the TARDIS and –”

“Courtney, it isn’t that simple,” the Doctor tried to say. “We don’t know what exactly sent them there, or when, or if it was Elliott, and he could very well be trying to –”

“Well, that just means we have to try harder!” Yolanda shouted. “I mean, right?!”

“If you won’t do anything to help them, then we will,” Courtney finished. “Come on – let’s go get the others.”

“Courtney, wait,” Caitlin begged, but Courtney and Yolanda were already gone. Caitlin shook her head, her hair gradually turning to white as Killer Frost awoke, ice already forming in her palms.

“I’ll go get them,” she growled, starting to stalk after the teens. “They really need to start listening to their elders –”

“Frost, wait,” Ralph interrupted. She stopped, taking in his pale face and haunted eyes.

“What is it?”

“October 5th, 1902,” he said and held out the diary. “Look.”

Frost plucked the diary from his hands, the color draining from her face as she read. She looked up, meeting the Doctor’s and Nash’s eyes.

“It’s the date of Barry’s death.”

“Give me that,” Nash shook his head, grabbing the diary from her grasp to read the actual entry. “Today is the day I, Elliott Pax, have finally won. I have...”

He cleared his throat, determined to finish the sentence. “I have killed Barry Allen.”


	11. Plans Waylaid

***

CENTRAL CITY

PRESENT DAY

Courtney and Yolanda ran through the streets of Central City, not caring who saw them or why.

“Come on!” Courtney yelled, pointing ahead. “I know where it is, she parked it up here –”

“Wait, Court!” Yolanda asked, slowing down. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Courtney asked, blowing her hair out of her face. “You’re the one who wanted to –”

“Do something, yeah, I know,” Yolanda huffed. “But what about the rest of the team? What are Beth and Rick gonna say when we leave them behind?”

“Who said anything about leaving us behind?” Rick yelled. Courtney and Yolanda turned to see Beth and Rick leaning up against either side of the Doctor’s TARDIS. Beth grinned and waved.

“Come on, you really think we’d miss out on going to the past?”

“Or defeating Elliott,” Rick added, throwing a knowing glance at Courtney. She grimaced.

“Our priority is to rescue Barry and Iris,” she said sternly. “And Kara and Alex. Are you sure you’re good to go? I mean, both of you?”

“Why wouldn’t we be?” Rick asked pointedly. Yolanda sighed.

“Courtney, I promise. We’ll be fine. If Barry’s back there, somewhere even remotely close to Elliott and a version of his Museum, or... worse, then we have to be fine, don’t we?”

“Yolanda, that’s not what I meant,” Courtney tried to say, but was interrupted by a yell.

“HEY! What’re you kids doing near my TARDIS!”

“Doctor, chill, they’re just kids –”

Courtney exchanged confused looks with the rest of the JSA as an old, white Scottish man with bushy grey eyebrows ran angrily up to them, followed by a young Black woman wearing a jean jacket and smart red sneakers.

“Who are you?” Rick asked quizzically.

“I’m the Doctor,” the white-haired Scotsman said, glowering at them.

“Uh, no you’re not,” Yolanda interjected. The woman in the jean jacket scoffed.

“Uh, yes, he is?”

“Courtney!” Everyone turned again as the Doctor – the Doctor the JSA knew in her long jacket, yellow suspenders and rainbow t-shirt – ran up to them, followed by Cisco, Nash and Frost. She stumbled to a stop, staring at the Scotsman in shock.

“You?!”

“What do you mean, me?!” the white-haired Doctor snapped. “Who are you – who are all of you?!”

“Doctor...”

“Can’t exactly answer that right now,” the Doctor pleaded, putting her hands out to try and placate her former self. “Courtney, please, just – step away from the TARDIS –”

“The TARDIS? How do you know that’s a –”

“No,” Courtney insisted. “No, we have to take this chance to get them back, Doctor! We have to take it!”

“Not in my TARDIS, you aren’t,” the bushy-eyebrowed man interrupted.

“What do you mean, your TARDIS?” Beth frowned, right before Chuck corrected her. “Oh... guys, we’re at the wrong Doctor’s TARDIS.”

“The wrong Doctor?” the young British woman asked, furrowing her brows. “Doctor, what are they –”

“There’s no time to explain, Bill,” both Doctors said quickly, exchanging measured glances with each other.

“Courtney, please,” Frost stepped up. “We can figure this all out if you just –”

“No,” Yolanda interrupted. “Courtney’s right. I’m tired too – we all are. At least Barry didn’t treat us like kids, or little more than deadweight – we’re going to be the ones to save him, and Iris, and Kara and Alex. You’ll see!”

With that, she flung open the doors of the TARDIS and raced inside, the rest of the JSA following. The Doctor and Bill chased after them, the Scotsman extremely angered –

“You’re not supposed to just get inside like that!”

“Wait!” the Doctor yelled, running up just as the blue doors closed and the blue box began to dematerialize. She stared in shock, her hands raised in the air as she stared, helpless, unable to do anything as the TARDIS vanished from view.

“Why didn’t you do something?!” Frost shouted. “You could’ve easily gone in there and stopped them from –”

“No,” the Doctor whispered, meeting Frost’s harsh blue eyes. “No, there’s no way of knowing what that could’ve done to mess up the timeline. I have to try and remember what came next –”

“Doc, what are you talking about?” Nash asked. The Doctor shot him a panicked look.

“That man – he’s one of my former selves. And if I know anything about Courtney and her friends, they’ve just dragged him along to rescue everyone from 1902.”

“Is that so bad?” Frost asked, the ice in her palms quieting down to a simmer. “I mean, if he’s you, or was you, then surely he’ll help them?”

“Of course he will,” the Doctor said, nodding. “But there’s a reason why I don’t remember any of this at all, and I don’t think it has to do with my regeneration. We need to get to the bottom of this. We still don’t know what caused Barry’s death – what if we just put the events in motion to make it happen?”

“Then where’s your TARDIS?” Nash enquired shortly. “I mean – we have another, we can just take it and –”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” the Doctor said, her eyes flashing. “My TARDIS has gone missing.”

***


	12. Pep-Talks & Machines

CENTRAL CITY

1902

“So, let me get this straight,” Barry said, rubbing his temples. He, Kara and Alex were in Madame Vastra’s sitting room as the sunlight faded from late afternoon to evening, filling everything with a faint rosy glow. “Iris changed the past – because I killed Elliott and the Paxes? And she told you all not to –”

“Not to tell you,” Kara said gently, sitting down beside him. “Yes, Barry. She was, well, afraid that you’d feel too guilty, that you’d feel responsible somehow –”

“Of course I feel responsible!” Barry exclaimed. “I killed Elliott, I killed a—a child, how else am I supposed to feel?”

“Relieved?” suggested Alex. Kara shot her a look, and she backed off.

“He was the worst kind of evil, Barry,” Kara said, biting her lip. “Besides, you didn’t really kill him, he just came back and –”

“Tried to kill me, yeah, I know,” Barry put his head in his hands. “Trust me, I get it. But when was Iris planning on – on telling me all of this anyways? I mean –”

“I can’t speak for Iris,” Kara said heavily. “But I’m sure she would’ve told you if you two hadn’t immediately been sucked into the past and –”

“Iris and I have been here for nearly four months now, Kara,” Barry interrupted, meeting her eyes. “Sure, the first two I was in a coma –”

“I’m sorry, you were what –”

“But she’s had plenty of time to tell me at least something! I mean – so what about the Reality Rod? Did she lie about that still being around too?”

“Yes, Barry,” Iris said. She stepped into the room, her hat clenched in her hands. “I did. I was going to tell you when the time was right –”

“There’s never a right time!” Barry cried. “Iris, you know that better than anyone! So – so the Reality Rod’s been causing all my nightmares, all my paranoia over Elliott?”

“I don’t know,” Iris said, pain entering her eyes. “Last week, when you were sleepwalking, you – you started to remember what had happened, what was done and said in the past. And it was hurting you, causing you such physical pain that I asked Vastra to move the Rod and not tell me where she put it. Even Jenny doesn’t know where it is now, –”

“We’re supposed to tell each other everything, Iris!” Barry said, desperation clouding his voice. “Everything! I thought we were done with secrets, I –”

“Oh, you mean like your case board on your findings about Elliott Pax’s grandfather you’ve stashed up in the attic?” Iris asked, giving her husband a pointed stare. Barry drew a hand across his face, looking away as Iris pressed him for more.

“When were you going to tell me about that, Bar? That you’ve been tailing this man, that you’ve been doing everything I asked you not to!”

“It doesn’t matter anyway!” Barry yelled. Iris fell silent, taken aback. Barry hung his head, immediately ashamed.

“Elliott – the teenage one we just ran into – told me I’m going to die soon. Again! And I know I’ve been searching for clues, I know I have that whole case board, but – nothing’s fitting. This Elliott Pax, his grandfather – he’s been nothing but good and kind the whole time we’ve been here. However I’m going to die, it’s not going to be by this man’s hand.”

“Barry,” Iris said softly, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. “Barry, you shouldn’t listen –”

“There must be some other, bigger threat out there Iris,” Barry said. “And it’s coming for me, it’s coming for all of us. I’ve been – distracted for far too long now. I – I have to wake up.”

“Yes, and we have to talk about this!” Iris said. “Don’t just leave when things start getting hard, Barry –”

“Things aren’t _hard_ , Iris!” Barry cried. “They’re beyond that now, and they have been for a while! We can’t just talk about Elliott now. We have to act.”

He turned to Kara, who looked back at him with a warning in her eyes.

“You both got through the barrier, didn’t you? You and Alex.”

“It was just another wormhole –”

“Then good thing we have an Anti-Wormhole Machine,” Barry said, running into the other room, grabbing it and then bringing it back to everyone assembled. “Come on, Kara. I need your help.”

Then he was gone. Kara faced Iris and Alex worryingly, taking off her glasses.

“He’s right. Maybe we’ll be able to find a way back now that we’re all together.”

She flew out the front door, eliciting a heavy sigh from Jenny at the thought of having yet another superhero ruining their beautiful entrance. At least it wasn’t Jack the Ripper.

“So,” Madame Vastra said, clapping her hands as she looked Alex up and down. “Miss Danvers. Tea or whisky?”

“I think I’ll take a whisky, yeah,” Alex said, sucking in a deep breath and following Vastra to the kitchen.

***

“Barry?” Kara asked as she landed on the roof of Vastra and Jenny’s apartment. Smokestacks puffed in the distance, while people that looked as tiny as ants walked below them. Barry raced around the roof, gathering all the materials he needed in a scrap heap to attach to the Anti-Wormhole Machine. He slowed to a stop, glancing her way.

“Hey, you think you could just –” He held out two pieces of metal, and Kara sighed, reluctantly activating her heat vision to solder them together.

“Thanks,” Barry grinned, light-lipped as he ran back to assemble the rest of the machine. Kara crossed her arms across her chest, sighing impatiently.

“You don’t really need my help up here, do you.”

Barry glanced up at her after a moment, doing a good job at faking confusion.

“I needed your heat vision for that piece, didn’t I? Here –”

Kara grimaced as Barry took off again, flying up into the air to move out of his way as he quickly assembled the rest of the machine. He stopped, turning to face her and holding up two other pieces for her to solder together again.

“Here, just these last pieces!”

“Barry, we can stop Elliott,” Kara said, reluctantly beaming out her heat vision again. She floated back down to the ground, landing just as Barry stepped back from the completed, smoking machine.

“I’m here, Alex is here – we read all his notes and diary from the future. Whatever he’s up to, we can figure it out.”

“No,” Barry said, shaking his head. “No, we don’t have to do any of that, see? We can just get back to our own time, to everybody else.”

“Barry –”

“No, Kara,” Barry insisted, meeting her eyes. “I’m not waiting around for Elliott to make his first move against me anymore. We’re going to get out of here, and we’re going to be safe, and we won’t ever have to worry about Elliott again.”

“I want that too,” Kara started to argue. “For you, for all of us! But running away won’t solve all our problems again –"

“Watch,” Barry instructed, and reached out to pull a lever on the machine. He stepped back as it began to buzz, then whirr, and then ping as the gears began to pop off.

“No no no no no –” He raced around, trying to put the machine back together just as quickly as it fell apart. “This can’t be happening!”

“Barry,” Kara shouted over the noise, watching helplessly as the machine fell apart again and again seconds after Barry tried to fix it. “Barry!”

She flew in front of him, stopping him mid-run. Barry ran into her, stumbling back with the force. Then he slowly sank down to the ground, sitting in front of the wrecked machine. Kara sat down beside him, waiting for him to speak first.

“What if you do your flying-around-the-earth trick, would that be fast enough to –”

“All I’d do would be turn back time again,” Kara shook her head. “We’d probably end up right back where we started, with you and Iris falling out of the wormhole –”

“Well what if we just turn back time and start making the wormhole machine again, we –”

“What about your speed?” Kara tossed out. “Can’t you just run back to the future?”

“Not with all of us,” Barry sighed. “And I’m not leaving without Iris.”

“But you’ll run to get away from her and build a machine on the roof with me,” Kara pointed out, shoving him lightly. He grimaced, looking away.

“She wanted me to be completely fixed when I woke up from the coma,” Barry said, putting fixed in air quotes with his hands. “To have Elliott and this whole mess completely gone, to just focus on getting out of here. And I am, I swear, but –”

“Do you think that’s really what she meant?” Kara asked quietly. “You two are the most loving couple I now, you accept everything about each other. What makes you so sure she’s not on the same page as you now?”

“I don’t know,” Barry sighed. “I don’t know, and that’s what’s killing me. I mean – what if none of this is real? Elliott, he – Kara, sometimes I wake up and I think I’m back there, in the Museum, and that everything that’s happened since has been one big lie. And I know it’s not, but the feeling’s still there. What if it never leaves?”

“It doesn’t take a genius to know that things will change, Barry,” Kara said, smiling slightly. “When I came to Earth for the first time, all I thought about was Krypton and my parents and everyone else I left behind. Day in and day out, I really believed that they would come down in a spaceship one day and find me, and I’d go back with them and live out the rest of my life. But that day never came. I think I actually woke up one morning and realized my first thoughts hadn’t been about returning to Krypton. They’d been about breakfast, or something stupid I needed to ask Alex or mom about. You’ll get there too, I promise. You’re so much more than this, Barry.”

He finally looked over at her, only for Kara to grab him in a tight hug. Barry smiled, reluctantly hugging her back until it was too painful.

“Too much, Kara –”

“Oh – sorry,” she said sheepishly and broke away. Kara stood up, dusting off her skirts and extending a hand to her friend.

“Come on – I’m sure there’s some people in this city that need saving for an afternoon. Even in 1902.”

“Is that a challenge?” Barry asked, standing up alongside her. Kara’s eyes sparkled with mischief.

“Why not? First person to save ten people wins –”

She barely finished her sentence before Barry was gone, off like a shot. Kara rolled her eyes, and flew up into the sky. At least they were together again. At least she could focus on doing some real good.

***


	13. Fake Traps

OCTOBER 4th, 1902

CENTRAL CITY

Barry pushed open the door to the Central City Police Station, humming a quick tune as he walked inside. For the first time in months, he felt happy to be walking into his job again. He and Kara were working hard to save Central City’s streets, focusing their efforts on helping citizens whenever they could. As a junior detective, most of his work was forms and other paperwork, things he had mostly done right out of college. But he didn’t really mind – he was working faster than he ever had then, and he kind of liked seeing the astonished look on Commissioner Banner’s face every morning when he handed back the files in the span of fifteen minutes or so. Maybe he should’ve slowed down to not increase suspicion, like Madame Vastra always warned, but between his paperwork and his and Kara’s reconnaissance every day, he was starting to fall into a routine. And secretly, Barry was beginning to like it.

At Kara’s encouragement, he had tried talking to Iris again. He was trying to make an effort to do something for her every day, if not multiple times a day – bringing her lunch at work, flowers, cleaning the whole apartment from top to bottom. The Reality Rod was forgotten, just another piece of the past that they decided to put behind them. Barry knew Vastra and Jenny agreed with that, and on some level, so did he. His nightmares were more infrequent, he was waking up less with the need to lock all the doors and windows for fear of Elliott. After all, he knew where the teenager was – locked up inside the Central City prisons. Barry checked every day, earning no response from Elliott when he did. Maybe that was for the best. Everything else in his life was starting to look up – his relationship with Iris, his crime-solving with Kara and the police. Maybe he didn’t need to worry about Elliott quite so much. Maybe he didn’t have to.

“Allen!” The elder Elliott yelled and Barry froze, momentarily thrown back into the Museum. He glanced over with a large amount of effort, confused as the whole police precinct began to applaud and congratulate him for a job well done. Commissioner Banner even walked over and shook his hand once, glaring as he said, “Don’t expect this on a regular basis, Allen.”

“Uh, what shouldn’t I expect?” Barry asked, still rattled. Elliott walked over and clapped him on the back, brandishing a gold plaque with Barry’s name on it.

“Don’t mind the Commissioner, Allen, he isn’t used to giving out praise,” Elliott smiled. “And why should he be? You’re our youngest detective – no one could have anticipated you’d catch someone like the City Stalker within your first year here!”

“I caught who now?” Barry asked, still struggling to catch up. Elliott simply chuckled.

“The Central City Stalker, just a few weeks ago, don’t you remember? You practically dropped him off on our doorstep. Now – smile!”

“What?” Barry glanced up, smiling on command as a camera bulb flashed and the photographer gave a thumbs up. Barry turned back to Elliott, who was also smiling widely.

“Right! Yeah, I remember – only that wasn’t me, it was my friend –”

“Nonsense! You need to learn to take credit for your actions, my young man –”

“No, you don’t understand, it really was my friend K –”

“Listen, Allen,” Elliott interrupted as the rest of the force and the photographer drew away, jumping back to their jobs as the Commissioner barked at them to get back to work. “I’d like you to accompany me on a case tomorrow. It’s nothing special, just the Central City Museum has been reporting a string of small-scale robberies lately and the Commissioner tasked me to look into it. I understand of course, if you wouldn’t be willing to –”

“No,” Barry interrupted, jumping in immediately. “I mean – yes, I can go with you. It’s no problem, Mr. Pax. I should visit a museum again sometime, right?”

“Good,” Elliott smiled lightly, shaking Barry’s hand again. “Good, I’m glad to hear that. I’ll meet you there at – how about just before dinner, then. Four o’clock?”

“Sure,” Barry said, nodding quickly. “Sure, it’s just – my wife gets out of work at four, sir, and I usually pick her up –”

“I know this case isn’t as big as the City Stalker, Allen,” Elliott interrupted, suddenly brusque. “But every case should be treated with the same respect, don’t you think? Besides – I’ve seen you breeze through paperwork like lightning. Surely getting to the museum on time will be no trouble?”

“Like... lightning? Uh –”

“Just an expression, Mr. Allen, as I’m sure you’re aware,” Elliott said. Barry nodded, swallowing hard.

“Yeah – yeah, of course. I’ll be there, sir.”

“On time, I hope.”

“On time, definitely.”

“Tomorrow, then,” Elliott said, shaking Barry’s hand again before letting go and walking away. “Four o’clock, Allen. Don’t be late.”

“Don’t be late,” Barry muttered. “Right.”

He glanced up at the clock on the wall. It wasn’t even nine thirty yet. Sunlight still streamed through the windows. Commissioner Banner looked otherwise preoccupied, yelling at someone in his office. Far too busy to assign any paperwork to Barry today. Maybe that was for the better.

Barry took one last glance around the precinct, making sure no one was looking before he raced out, the double doors swinging in the breeze as he ran. One good thing about 1902 was that there weren’t any security cameras to watch him run away.

***

Barry sprinted into the Central City prison, unlocking the cell doors of the latest round of the men, women and children who didn’t deserve to be there. When they stumbled out into the light, they would find their debt had been cleared, along with every record of their incarcerations. Barry only wished he’d done more of that in the present.

Or was 2021 his present anymore?

He ignored that thought the best he could, running down to the lower levels that dripped with slime and muck and general doom and gloom. Barry slowed down as he reached the bottom steps, sticking to the shadows before he found his way to the cell of the person he wanted to see.

“Back again so soon?”

Barry froze as the voice echoed around the desolate walls. He glanced down at his shaking right hand, breathing deeply like Kara and Alex had advised. Of course, they had also advised him not to visit the teenage Elliott Pax by himself, either. But at least he was partly listening to them.

“I knew you’d come tonight anyway. I know exactly what’s going to happen to you, don’t you remember?”

“How could I forget?” Barry tossed back, rewarded by a low, menacing chuckle. “You remind me every day.”

“Every day... that’s right. You have been to see me every single day I’ve been trapped in here, haven’t you Barry? Don’t you think that’s a little... obsessive?”

“You’re the one who’s obsessed,” Barry shot back. “Making that wormhole, following Iris and I back in time, killing anyone in Central City just to get my attention –”

“And it worked, didn’t it?” Elliott laughed. “Even though that wormhole wasn’t my fault, it certainly helped in the long run. Trapping you here, in the past, slowly losing your mind –”

“We aren’t trapped, and I’m not losing my mind –”

“Of course you aren’t,” Elliott flashed him a grin from the depths of his cell. Barry was now close enough to look him in the eyes, still far back enough so he’d be able to run if needed. “You’re just visiting your old enemy in jail every day to prove him wrong, to prove that you’re still alive, right?”

Barry stayed silent.

“What happens when you don’t show up tomorrow, Mr. Allen?” Elliott leered. “It’ll be October 5th, won’t it? Not just for me, but for all those poor prisoners up there deserving of a second chance? What’ll happen when no one comes for them? They’re calling you and Miss Danvers “angels”, aren’t they? Angels of hope? What happens when one of their angels is buried six feet deep in the ground by next week –"

“We’re done here,” Barry said coldly, his voice a mere whisper. Elliott’s laugh rang in his ears as he sped out of the cells, out into the streets and back to his apartment. He raced through the doors, speeding into the dining room where he found Vastra, Jenny, Kara, Alex and Iris all waiting for him. Barry faltered in the doorway, suddenly feeling like he misstepped somehow.

“Hi,” he said disjointedly, looking around. “Uh – did I miss something?”

“You’ve been visiting Elliott in jail by yourself, haven’t you?” Kara stood up from the table, her glare boring into Barry so harshly that he took a cautious step back. “Barry, what were you thinking?”

“Babe, we asked you to at least take one of us,” Iris said, her voice pained. “What has he been saying, anything?”

“No, I,” Barry stammered, then shook his head. “It’s only been a few times –”

“I spoke with the guards, Barry,” Alex said, her voice tight and her gaze just as strong as her sister’s. “They’ve reported seeing a red blur enter and exit the cells every single day since Elliott was admitted.”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Barry tried to say. Iris shook her head in disbelief.

“Not that big of a deal? Barry, this is Elliott we’re talking about. What has he been doing to make you lie to me, to all of us?”

“What?” Barry looked at her, caught off guard. “Iris, I – he’s not making me do anything, much less lie to you, I –”

“What of the Reality Rod?” Vastra asked, her tone clipped and harsh. “Has Elliott been after any information regarding it?”

“Please, just tell us the truth Mr. Allen,” Jenny begged. Barry looked between everyone, raising his hands slightly in defense.

“You’ve got it all wrong, Elliott isn’t trying to get any information out of me or anything, all he talks about is my apparent death tomorrow –”

“And you keep going back to him?” Iris asked. Barry shook his head, trying to make her see.

“Iris, it’s not like that –”

“Then what is it like, Barry?” she pressed, standing up. Barry didn’t answer, looking away shamefaced. Iris traded a meaningful glance with Kara and Alex, and took a deep breath.

“You have to stay home tomorrow.”

“What?”

“We’ve all talked,” Iris continued, avoiding looking at him. “We want to avoid any kind of confrontation with Elliott at all. And the safest way to do that is for you to stay here.”

“Iris, I’m not hiding in fear again –”

“You won’t be hiding, you’ll be protected,” Kara interjected. Alex stepped up, nodding her agreement.

“Kara and I will stay home as well, Barry, we’ll be with you the whole time.”

“No,” Barry shook his head. “No, every time I’ve faced Elliott I haven’t had my speed, but this time I do, and that makes all the difference –”

“What if he takes it away?” Kara shot back. “What if he finds some way again?”

“I don’t like ‘what ifs’, Kara,” Barry said, his voice rising. “Besides, you can’t force me to stay here, we all know there’s no containment cell here that can keep me...”

He trailed off, his mouth going dry as the women exchanged looks. Barry swallowed, his panic rising.

“You’ve been preparing for this, haven’t you.”

“Barry, it’s just for one day,” Iris said quietly. “We’ll alter the timeline, and then you’re free to go –”

“Just because I don’t end up dying tomorrow doesn’t mean it’ll never happen,” Barry said, desperate. “What are you planning to do, keep me locked up forever? Trap me, just to prevent my death?”

“Barry, of course not,” Kara said. “But we have to keep some precautions when dealing with Elliott, you know that –”

“No,” Barry said, shaking his head. “No, absolutely not. This is – this is exactly what Elliott did, trapped me in the Museum to preserve me, to keep me safe from the outside world, that’s what he said –”

“None of us are Elliott, Barry,” Iris said, her voice also rising. “All we want is to keep you safe –”

“Where is it?” Barry asked, his voice fierce. “Where is it, Iris? This – this containment cell. Because no matter where it is, if it’s me he wants, Elliott will find it –”

“If you’d just give us a chance, Barry!” Iris yelled, reaching for him. “Just let us explain, please –”

“There has to be another solution here,” Barry said, looking at her. “This is exactly what we were working against at STAR Labs, locking people up whenever we felt like it!”

“This is not the same as that, and you know it –”

“Then tell me,” Barry insisted, yelling back at her. “Because I’ve been starting to feel that you just like the idea of me, Iris. That you want me under your control, and everyone else here so that you know where I am at all times, so that you have me all to yourself. I’m not someone you can put on display, something to parade out to the public like, here’s my husband, the superhero!”

“Barry,” Iris looked at him in horror. “Barry, I don’t think anything like that –”

“I’m not getting trapped again,” Barry said hoarsely, meeting everyone’s eyes. Kara shook her head.

“Barry, you have to listen to us. This is for your own protection –”

“Or what?!” Barry yelled. “Or what, Supergirl? You’ll just lock me up anyway? Even if I say no, even if I propose another solution?”

“You haven’t come up with another solution except to run back and destroy Elliott!” Kara shouted. Barry put his head in his hand, tightening his mouth into a thin hard line as he looked back up at her.

“I’ll run if I have to,” he said finally. “I won’t be forced back in a box again –”

“Barry, I don’t want to fight you,” Kara said evenly, rising into the air. “But I will if that’s what it takes to keep you away from Elliott.”

“Then I’ll run,” Barry said, backing up towards the door. He looked over at Iris, who reached out to him in desperation.

“Barry, stay. Please, just this once –”

“I’m sorry, Iris,” Barry whispered, his eyes red. “But I can’t be trapped again.”

He sprinted out the door as fast as he could. Iris ran forward, watching the red streak run down the road and around the corner. Kara flew out of the apartment, taking a look back at Iris, Alex, Vastra and Jenny.

“I’ll bring him back,” she said, her voice thick with tears. “He has to see we don’t mean him any harm.”

“Wait,” Iris stopped her, her eyes hard and determined. “I’m coming with you.”


	14. Nightfall

***

Barry skidded to a stop at the end of a road, looking out at the shimmering barrier that separated Central City from the rest of the world – and from the rest of time. If he looked the furthest up, he almost imagined he could see through to the night sky and the stars and the hole where Kara and Alex had broken through.

When had the day turned to nightfall?

“Barry.”

He turned. Iris walked up to him, Kara standing a few feet away from them both. Barry looked down as Iris took his hands in hers, holding them gently and firm all at once. He raised his head, looking into her eyes.

“Barry, please come home,” Iris asked. She released his hands, placing a hand on his cheek as she searched his eyes.

“I never wanted to “fix” you, or claim you as a prize. I never meant for you to think I only cared about the Flash, or putting you on display. Please, Barry – I’m worried about you. But we can get through this together. Come back with us. We’ll forget about the containment cell, forget about all of it. We can find another way, I swear. Just come back with us.”

“Iris, I –” Barry’s voice broke. He put a hand on Iris’, tears beginning to well in his eyes. “Iris, I don’t want to lose you. But I feel like I’m beginning to lose myself.”

“No,” Iris insisted. “No, Barry, you’re wrong. You’ll always have room inside to feel this way, to think about Elliott and the museum, and everything – but that doesn’t mean you’re losing who you are. I know you, Barry Allen. You are good, and kind, and capable of conquering anything in your way. This doesn’t have to define you. And it won’t if you don’t let it.”

“Iris,” Barry shook his head, pulling away. “Iris, I can’t. I’m sorry.”

“Barry, don’t run,” Iris begged, trying to hold onto him for as long as he could. “Don’t you dare run, Barry!”

Kara flew up into the air as Barry took off, chasing him through the streets as fast as she could. She rose up into the sky, staring down at the city below as she tracked the movement of the orange and yellow lightning, and then dove again to land in front of her friend. Barry skidded to a stop, glancing back down the street.

“You can’t catch me,” he said. Kara shook her head.

“I don’t need to catch you, Barry. You need to come home.”

Barry looked away. “Is this our home now, Kara?”

“For now,” she answered, taking a small step forward to approach him. “Just until we find a way back, you know that.”

“I can’t go back,” Barry said softly. Kara froze.

“What?”

“I can’t go back,” Barry repeated, looking her in the eyes. “And I can’t keep hiding with you and Iris, either. Not until I know for certain. Not until I know I can leave this all behind.”

Barry took a step back, preparing to run away, but Kara was faster. She flew forward, grabbing ahold of Barry’s arm to keep him in place. He shot her a horrified glance, but she stayed strong.

“This is for your own good, Barry. Please, just stay with us. We can figure all this out.”

“Barry!” Iris yelled, running up to join the pair. “Barry, just listen to Kara. Listen to me. We’ll find a way –”

“A way what?” Barry asked. “A way to keep me prisoner, a way for you to control me?”

“This isn’t you,” Iris said evenly. “Whoever you are, you are not my husband right now.”

“Who else would I be?” Barry asked, his voice falling to a horrified whisper as Iris shook her head. “Iris, who else would I be?”

“The Barry Allen I know wouldn’t give up,” Iris said, trying to keep her voice steady. “He doesn’t just take the easy way out.”

“Iris, this is me,” Barry said, desperately trying to wrench his arm out of Kara’s grasp. “Iris, I swear, it’s me –”

“Then prove it,” Iris said, struggling to hold back her tears. “Kara, let him go. Prove to me you won’t run away from us.”

“Iris, no –”

“Iris,” Kara interrupted. “Are you sure about this?”

She nodded, and Kara released Barry. He stumbled back, staring at the two women in shock.

“How can I convince you I’m myself when you don’t want to see it?” he asked in a whisper. “When you can’t see it?”

“Stay with us,” Iris repeated, tears rolling down her face. “Then we’ll know.”

Barry looked away.

“You’re asking me to do the one thing you know I can’t,” he said. “I’m sorry, Iris.”

He ran out of the alleyway. Iris sucked back her tears, stopping Kara before she flew after him.

“Don’t,” she said into the ensuing silence. "He’ll come back when he’s ready.”

“How can you be so sure?” Kara turned to her, fear in her eyes. Iris looked back.

“I have to trust he will.”

***

Barry ran as rain began to fall, pelting the pavement and blurring his surroundings into a watercolor painting. He stumbled, putting his hands to his head as images wormed their way inside his head, scenes from the Museum, from his kidnapping, from his fight with Kara and Iris just now –

He found himself leaning up against a street lamp, gasping for air. For a moment Barry glanced around disoriented, unsure of where he was. How could Iris think he wasn’t himself? He pitched forward, barely catching himself before he slammed into the sidewalk. Barry stumbled back, struggling to make sense of what was going on. Were his memories catching up to him? What did he have to do?

“Lock the doors,” Barry mumbled, running forward again. He almost made it to the next block before he stumbled again, falling to the ground. He glanced down to see his hands slick with blood, the Reality Rod flickering in and out of existence and his body. He looked up, and there was Elliott staring down at him with a smile –

“You’ll never be rid of me, Mr. Allen,” the man taunted. “How could you ever think you could be?”

“You’re not real,” Barry muttered. He glanced down again and the Reality Rod was gone. He felt the rain fall down, each drop hitting his face until he could think again, until his mind was finally clear. He knew where he was – he had to only be a mile away from the apartment. He could run back in less than a second –

No. He couldn’t. He’d messed everything up here, hadn’t he? Barry stood up, tilting his face up to the sky again. He stared and stared and stared until he couldn’t, until the rain felt so sharp he wasn’t sure if it was the real rainwater or if it was tears.

So Barry yelled.

He yelled until he ran out of breath, and then did it all over again. He didn’t care who heard him. He didn’t care if Kara heard him. Barry yelled and yelled and yelled, his frustration and anger and sadness and grief all pouring out of him until finally he couldn’t take being in one place much longer. Barry sped off around the city in under a minute, one thought pounding louder than all the rest –

He couldn’t run from his problems anymore. But he couldn’t face them tonight, either.

Barry needed rest. Where could he go?

He had his answer before he even really thought of it. Barry found himself at the police station in a matter of minutes. He ran upstairs without thinking, somehow expecting his old office but finding a dusty storage room instead. Barry fell into a chair, glanced out the windows, and fell asleep in seconds.

***


	15. October 5th

CENTRAL CITY

OCTOBER 5th, 1902

“Mr. Allen? Mr. Allen!”

Barry blearily opened his eyes, blinking back the sun as a concerned face hovered over his. He slowly sat up, shaking off a... newspaper someone had put over him as a blanket? He glanced around, seeing the sun stream in through the glass panes, the boxes and storage that cluttered up what would become his office at least a hundred years from now in the future. He blinked one last time, finally recognizing Mr. Pax in front of him.

“What time is it?” Barry asked, his voice hoarse. Mr. Pax raised his eyebrows.

“Did you spend the night up here, son? It’s nearly four o’clock in the afternoon –”

“Four?” Barry echoed, then immediately stood up from his chair, hit by a sudden shockwave of emotion. Kara. _Iris._ What had he done? “It’s the next day?”

“Mr. Allen, you don’t look well,” Elliott frowned, reaching out for Barry’s arm. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“No,” Barry pulled away, throwing another confused glance outside. “No, I – I have to get home, my wife, we – we had an argument and I –”

“Barry, you’re clearly not yourself,” Mr. Pax said gently, guiding Barry back to the chair. “I know we were going to the museum to work on that case, but perhaps we should save that for another day –”

“The museum?” Barry barely had a chance to ask before Commissioner Banner ran into the room.

“Allen!” he barked. “There you are – I’ve got your wife on the line, she says she’s been kidnapped –”

“Kidnapped?!” Barry sprang up from the chair again, throwing off Elliott’s hand from his shoulder. “Where – who?”

“The City Stalker,” Banner said. Barry felt a chill run down his back. “He escaped from jail this morning –”

“No –”

“He’s taken her to the Central City Museum, Allen, you have to go –”

“I – yeah,” Barry stammered, rushing out the door. “I’m on my way!”

“Mr. Allen, wait!”

Barry stopped, one second away from using his speed, and turned. Mr. Pax rushed up to him, sympathy etched in his eyes.

“I can’t let you go alone – not when you’re in such a state as this. Please – let me help you.”

Barry looked down at the man’s outstretched hand, then back up to his eyes. He thought he saw a glimmer of hope there, something like actual warmth. This man seemed so, so different from the Elliott he knew. And Barry also knew he would do anything to save Iris – especially if he had messed up so badly yesterday.

So he took a leap of faith, and made the worst decision of his life.

“Sure,” Barry said, grabbing ahold of Elliott Pax’s arm. They locked eyes. “But you might want to hang on.”

Barry sped out of the precinct.

***

He skidded to a stop as he practically flew through the museum’s doors, leaving them swinging wide open. He let go of Elliott and let the man stumble off while he took a panicked look around.

“Iris?” Barry called. No answer. Only gleaming white walls and frozen animals trapped in glass boxes stared back at him. “Iris?”

He spun in a circle, desperation quickly taking hold. “Iris?!” Where could she be?

“Barry, there’s no one here,” Elliott cried, glancing around as well. “Whoever wanted you here, I believe it’s a trap.”

“No,” Barry insisted. “No, it – it can’t be, Elliott always – not you, the City Stalker, he always likes tricking me like this – Iris?!”

He raced up the stairs, and then back down again, but there was no sign of her. He sped back down into the entrance hall, coming to a halt beside a great skeletal statue of a woolly mammoth.

“Mr. Allen, we should get back to the precinct,” Mr. Pax cleared his throat. “Obviously we’ve been set up here –”

“No, wait,” Barry said quietly, putting out his hands for silence. “Do you hear that?”

Something rumbled in the deep. It started with small tremors, the floor shaking underneath their feet. Barry glanced up, watching in horror as the ceiling and floor began to collapse all around them. He should’ve run right there, should’ve gotten out as fast as he could. But –

“Barry!” Mr. Pax’s cry was ripped away by the chunks of the ceiling falling down, crushing everything beneath them. Barry raced to pull the man out from underneath the stone, using up his precious time to check him over for injuries.

“Are you alright?!” Barry yelled over the cascading stones. They were nearly deafening now. “I’ll get you to safety, Mr. Pax, I promise –”

“I don’t think you will,” Mr. Pax said. He smiled, turning Barry’s heart to pure ice. Warning bells began to sound in his head while the thunderous cave-in continued. But he was out of time. Another great piece of the ceiling wrenched itself loose, headed straight for the two of them if Barry didn’t act fast. He reached for his speed, to run them both away from this avalanche, when suddenly..

He... couldn’t. No lightning, no speed, no anything. Barry looked down at his hands.

Around his wrists were metahuman cuffs.

He glanced up, finding the previously warm, sympathetic eyes of the elder Elliott Pax had been consumed by ice and anger. Or maybe they had always been that way. Maybe he had never noticed before.

“Goodbye, Mr. Allen,” Elliott Pax smiled tightly, taking one step away from Barry as the stones fell loose from the ceiling.

“I’ll be sure to give Iris my condolences on the passing of her husband.”

The ceiling collapsed, burying him in an instant. Barry looked up as everything fell, petrified as his world turned to darkness for the last time.

***

“Iris? There’s someone for you at the door.”

Iris emerged from her room, appearing at the top of the stairs. Kara stood by the front door, her face clouded with worry. She knew it was because Barry hadn’t come home last night. But Iris had spent months without her husband. This time was different. He’d come back as soon as he felt willing to talk. Iris had to hope.

She hurried down the stairs, her hope fading fast as she saw the man’s silhouette in the doorway frame.

“Yes?” she asked, exchanging a wary glance with Kara as she finally saw who it was.

“Oh – Mr. Pax,” Iris said, a note of some relief entering her voice. “Did Barry show up at the precinct today? He went out last night and never returned –”

“Mrs. West-Allen,” Mr. Pax began ever so softly, and Iris felt like someone punched her in the gut at his next words. “You haven’t heard?”

“Heard what?”

Mr. Pax uncurled his hand. In his palm lay two rings – Barry’s rings. One of them usually held the Flash suit – the Flash suit that had been left behind in 2020. And the other was his wedding band.

Iris stared.

“There was a cave-in at the museum,” Mr. Pax began brokenly. “We were there, trying to solve a case – a string of robberies, I’m sure he told you. “Your husband saved my life, Mrs. West-Allen but –”

“No,” Iris shook her head, her eyes turning blank. “No, he can’t be – Barry can’t be –”

“What happened?” Kara asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“He pushed me out of the way of the rocks,” Mr. Pax answered. Iris took the rings from him, staring at them in shock. “But then –”

“No,” Iris repeated, refusing to believe. “No – that’s impossible. He couldn’t have – Barry’s fast, he – he would’ve –”

“I truly am sorry, Mrs. West-Allen,” Mr. Pax said. “But I was there. He was crushed. I’m afraid your husband is... gone.”

“No,” Iris repeated for the third time, her voice turning into a low whisper. She clutched the doorframe, sinking to her knees. “No!”

***


	16. Rescue Mission

THE TARDIS

THREE HOURS EARLIER

“Please, you have to take us to the past!” Courtney begged, watching the white-haired Doctor race around the TARDIS console, pressing buttons and pushing levers as fast as he could go, trying to regain control of his own ship. Whatever these kids had done when they first raced in here, the TARDIS hadn’t liked it, and it was causing the ship to spin out of control. “It’s like I said, our friends are trapped in –”

“Central City, 1902, yeah, only heard you the first million times,” the Doctor snapped with a glare at the four kids dressed in ridiculous costumes. Superheroes, huh? He’d had enough of superheroes to last a lifetime.

“Doctor,” Bill’s voice broke into his thoughts with a warning. “Maybe try listening for once instead of immediately biting their heads off?”

“Alright,” the Doctor shot her a look, but really he knew she was right. He spread his hands out and faced the teenagers. “Alright, I’m listening. You have five minutes, go.”

Courtney and her friends exchanged glances. The Doctor checked his watch and sighed.

“Our friend Barry Allen and his wife Iris were trapped in the past by this evil kid who wants to kill Mr. Allen because he thinks he and Iris killed his parents,” Yolanda said, glaring right back at the Doctor as she crossed her arms. “Which you should know because you’re the Doctor.”

“Yes, I am, but apparently I’m not _your_ Doctor,” the Doctor said. “Nor do I know anyone named Barry or Iris Allen, and I certainly don’t appreciate teenage superheroes taking control of my TARDIS!”

“Our Doctor would’ve helped us no questions asked,” Beth pointed out. “Instead of doing whatever it is you’re doing with trying to get us to return to the present.”

“I’m not – how do you know that?!” The Doctor asked, and Beth tapped her glasses.

“I’ve got a supercomputer in these. His name is Chuck.”

“All this fancy tech, and you couldn’t even rescue your friends without using my TARDIS?”

“Doctor, play nice,” Bill warned, standing up. She shared a smile with Beth, and then the rest of the JSA. “I believe them. Besides, I saw them when they came in – they didn’t do anything to the TARDIS. I think she’s on their side too. And you can’t ignore a distress call, Doctor.”

“We haven’t gotten one!” The Doctor cried. “All we’ve gotten is four kids who somehow bypass the TARDIS security and –”

The Doctor fell silent as he suddenly realized the TARDIS had stopped all movement. Bill gestured to the doors, motioning for the Doctor to go on ahead. He groaned internally but did as she said, slowly opening them with a small creak. He peered outside into a dreary alleyway, freezing in the doorway as he noticed the streetlamps and cobblestones all around him. The JSA and Bill crowded in beside him, taking one glance outside before moving past the Doctor. Bill rounded the corner with Courtney and Yolanda, who stopped her as soon as they realized who was in front of them.

“It’s Iris,” Yolanda said, stunned as they all watched Iris exit the black carriage, wearing a dark veil and a dark dress. She turned as Kara and Alex joined her, their faces melancholy as they watched the carriage drive away.

“What do we do now?” Kara asked, tears in her eyes. Iris took off her veil, shaking her hair loose.

“We keep working on the Anti-Wormhole Machine. It’s what he would’ve wanted, for us to get back home.”

“Iris!” Courtney yelled, breaking free from Yolanda and Bill, and running up to the three older women.

“Courtney?!” Kara asked quizzically, looking past her as the rest of the JSA joined them, followed by two other strangers. “How did you –”

“Doctor?” interrupted Vastra, running up to the group followed by Jenny, who stared at the scene agape. “What is going on here?”

“You know these people?” The Doctor asked, furrowing his brows harshly.

“Do I – of course I do, you told me to look after Barry and Iris when they arrived,” Vastra said, eyeing the Time Lord, who clearly knew nothing about their present situation.

“Okay,” Iris interrupted everyone, holding up her hands before everything became that much more complicated. “Whatever’s going on here – please, just, can we wait till we’re inside? Then everyone can just explain –”

“There’s nothing to explain except that we’re here to help you rescue Barry,” Courtney said, her sentence dying as Iris looked away.

“You’re too late, Courtney,” Iris said, her voice soft. She cleared her throat, glancing back quickly. “It happened a week ago – he was in the museum when it caved in. We just buried him today.”

“But that’s impossible, why didn’t he escape?” Rick interjected. “Barry’s the fastest man alive –”

“Was,” Iris interrupted, the pain fresh in her eyes as she looked at him. “Rick, was.”

“Well the Doctor can just go back in time and stop this,” Beth said, and all the teenagers turned to face the Doctor. “Can’t you?”

The Doctor met Vastra and Jenny’s eyes, then shook his head. He turned on the ball of his foot, throwing over his shoulder as he walked away,

“I can’t resurrect the dead.”

“Doctor,” Bill called after him. She glanced back to the JSA, frowning as she went to join the Scotsman. “I’m sorry – I’ll see if I can convince him to do anything. At the very least we’ll take you all home. I promise.”

She turned, jogging to reach the Doctor as he disappeared inside the TARDIS. Vastra gently herded the teenagers and Kara, Alex, and Iris inside the apartment while Jenny went to make a fresh pot of tea.

“Now,” Vastra said, shutting the door behind them all. “I believe it is high time we get to the bottom of this, and talk. Together.”


	17. Pax's Museum

CENTRAL CITY, 1902

THE MUSEUM

ONE WEEK EARLIER

Barry was most certainly, unflinchingly, well-aware that he was very much alive. He knew he was alive because when he opened his eyes, he didn’t just see darkness, he saw a bright marble ceiling. He knew he was alive because when he tried to stand, he winced in pain and decided it was better to stay sitting down. He knew he was alive because his first thoughts when he woke up – even though he felt utterly disoriented and confused because he’d thought for sure he’d been buried under miles of stone and rubble – his first thoughts were about Iris.

How could he think about Iris if he was dead?

Somehow, he found the strength to sit up and look around, further finding that he was alive – and trapped. He’d been locked in another cell, another cage with his speed nowhere to be found and metahuman cuffs wrapped around his wrists. Barry felt even more pain tug at his heart as he realized this was exactly what Iris and Kara had warned him about. And now – now they probably thought he was dead, buried and crushed under tons of stone. He pressed his palms into his eyes, rubbing them free of tears as he prepared to investigate his surroundings.

But a clapping sound echoed through the desolate halls, freezing Barry to his core. Slowly, he turned.

“Oh, Barry, Barry, Barry,” the elder Elliott Pax chuckled, clapping his hands with delight. A manic grin slowly spread across his wrinkled face as he emerged from the shadows of the museum basement. “My great-grandson was right about you after all. Tell you your wife is in danger, and you will do whatever I say.”

“Where is she –” Barry took an angered step forward, but Elliott held up his hand. He held a gleaming silver remote in his grasp, something far too technologically advanced for this time. Something Barry thought he was rid of. Something he never thought he’d see again.

“Oh, I don’t have Iris,” Elliott laughed again. “As far as I know she could be at your home, or at the Telegraph Office. And you know what? I don’t care, either. All I wanted was you, and here you are.”

“Whatever the teenage Elliott’s told you about me, don’t believe it,” Barry began, suddenly struggling to come to terms with what he had done. With how he had messed up. “Mr. Pax – you’ve known me for months –”

“No, Barry,” Elliott interrupted. His eyes sparked with rage. “I’ve plotted to kill you for months.”

“What?”

“Yes,” Elliott said, taking a step closer to Barry’s cell, tossing the remote back and forth. “It was my great-grandson who gave me this, those cuffs preventing you from using your speed, and all I had to do in return was steal him a blue police box using the coordinates he provided. Your time-traveling friends do get around, Mr. Allen – it’s a pity they didn’t come for you.”

“Why?” Barry asked, his eyes welling with tears again. “I trusted you –”

“That was your first mistake, wasn’t it?” Elliott interrupted. “The mirror image of your enemy who’s been stalking you and plotting to kill you for an entire year now – and you decide to trust him? It is no wonder my great-grandson has been able to trap you so many times. And now, finally, so have I.”

Elliott turned and strode away, turning up the lamps so Barry could see the rest of the basement. In the center of the room was a lab table strewn with bubbling beakers and tongs and tools.

“He warned me you would try to destroy me simply because I had his face and name,” Elliott said. “So all I had to do was destroy you first. But before I do – you’re going to put in a little work for me first.”

“Work,” Barry echoed, eying the man as he walked over to the table, inspecting the pitchers and beakers. “What kind of work?”

“You’re a man of science, are you not?” Elliott asked innocently. “All you have to do for me is replicate this freezing gas so it can be used anywhere I want, on whomever I want. Make you perfectly immobile much like all the creatures in this museum. Then, after you finish, perhaps I’ll let you see your wife again. Though I don’t imagine she’ll take too kindly to a ghost showing up on her doorstep.”

“Why go through all this?” Barry asked, leaning heavily against the bars of his cage. “Just to get me to make you this gas. What’s the point?”

“The point, Mr. Allen,” Elliott sneered. “Is the game. Something I hope you’ll remember after all of this. Perhaps when you’re locked up nice and tight in someone else’s manor or museum, a treasured part of their collection. I’ve been known to curate collections, you know – some of my finest works lived in this museum. You could say I conserve the very best pieces, save them so others may always value and appreciate their uniqueness. And you, Barry, are truly one of a kind.”

Elliott flicked on the last light before walking back to Barry, slowly unlocking the door to his cell.

“Perhaps I should even sell you to the highest bidder – or back to your wife, perhaps? Imagine her surprise when she expects some memento to celebrate or honor you – but it ends up actually being you. You would of course be dead by then, or frozen – I can’t decide if I want you stuffed or alive, able to hear everything dear Iris and your friends say but wholly unable to do anything about it.”

“You won’t get away with this,” Barry said, blinking hard. “Iris – she’ll know I’d have escaped the cave-in with my speed, her and Kara will be looking for me –”

“Not if they find your body buried underneath all that rubble up above our heads,” Elliott smiled sweetly, a horrific caricature of his nine-year-old great-grandson. “The City Stalker did come in handy, with all his victims. You never got a good look at them, did you? All men, all tall, all with dark brown hair – that last one especially, bore an uncanny resemblance to you when crushed under a heap of stone. Mr. John Hornbuckle, I believe his name was?”

“No,” Barry whispered, utterly bereft. “No, you didn’t –”

“Face it, Mr. Allen,” Elliott Pax spat at him, unlocking the cell door. “I’ve won, and there’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it. Now – start your work on the gas, and I’ll think about your options. You only have two, after all.”

“Just let me see Iris,” Barry asked quietly, not moving. “Let me see her, and I promise I’ll do everything you –”

Elliott slapped him across the face, shoving him into the wall.

“In my experience, threats make for far better work, Mr. Allen,” he hissed, gritting his teeth in anger as he stared into Barry’s eyes. “I will crush you before I let you see your wife again. I will break you, and your mind, and you won’t even recognize Iris before the week is through. There’s another fine idea for a serum creation, isn’t it?”

He slowly released Barry, walking backward and gesturing towards the chair at the table.

“Now sit, Barry. And get to work.”

Barry peeled himself off the wall and followed Elliott Pax’s directions. Inside, his heart was aching. Would he ever see Iris again? Kara, Alex -- even Cisco and Frost and everyone else? He needed a plan.

He needed his friends. He needed Iris.

He would just have to find a way to get back to them himself.


	18. Deliberations

CENTRAL CITY, 1902

ONE WEEK LATER

“Doctor.”

Bill watched as the Doctor – her Doctor, anyways – raced around the TARDIS console and did what he always did – ignore the problem right in front of his face. She sighed and shook her head, walking over to join him before he went ahead and did something to make the TARDIS leave ahead of schedule.

“Hey. Doctor!”

He glanced up her way, slowly bringing the buzzing of the sonic to a stop. The wire he was working on didn’t really need repairs, nor did he really need to be hiding in the TARDIS avoiding 1902 America.

“A simple vacation,” he groaned. “That’s all you asked for, and then? TARDIS waylaid, and we’re stuck helping a bunch of kids and superpowered adults return back to the year 2021. What’s next, flying cars?”

“Don’t count that out,” Bill warned him. “That blonde girl – Stargirl? Courtney? – mentioned something about a flying cosmic staff.”

“And where is Stargirl and her flying cosmic staff now?” the Doctor asked, standing up and pressing a few buttons on the console just because he felt like it. “Flying around Central City, trying to find a man who everyone else insists is dead –”

“Doctor,” Bill said softly, folding her arms across her chest. “Your bedside manner could use some fine-tuning.”

“What?” the Doctor shrugged. “I’m not talking to Iris about any of this, am I?”

“Yeah,” Bill said, eyeing him. “Hey – how d’you know Iris and not her husband, anyway? Seems like you should, what with him being the Flash and all, right?”

“All Time Lords don’t know ever superhero in existence, Bill, and even if we did, there’s too many to count, much less remember in each generation. Must’ve never crossed paths,” The Doctor tossed back, spinning a wheel. “I met Iris a while back, previous regeneration, she was still a little girl. Doubt she’d remember me.”

“So this whole meeting your friends when they’re kids thing,” Bill raised an eyebrow. “That happen often?”

“Doesn’t matter,” the Doctor said, brushing aside the question for now. “Everyone’s supposed to be back at the TARDIS by seven tonight. We’ll get them all home.”

“Do you really think Barry’s dead?” Bill asked, shifting on her feet. “Courtney and Beth just seem so convinced...”

“Strange things happen when a speedster gets involved with time, Bill,” the Doctor said, looking askance at her. “Things change, wipe whole timelines in and out of existence –”

“Well then there is a chance he’s alive,” Bill said, her eyes sparking. “Doctor, we should go find him –”

“No, we stay put, and wait for the others to come back,” the Doctor said shortly. “Don’t get involved –”

“What, get more involved than the group of superheroes from 2021 who’ve been in 1902 for months,” Bill rolled her eyes. She grabbed her jacket, walking to the TARDIS doors as the Doctor watched.

“I’m going to ask Courtney and Beth if they need any help,” she said, one hand on the TARDIS door.

The Doctor hung his head. “Wait. I’m coming.”

Bill smiled slowly. “For real?”

“Yes, for real – but we need to change. And get Stargirl and the rest of her friends back here – can’t have them running around 1902 in crop tops and skinny jeans. Might mess up the timeline.”

“What, are you serious –”

“I’m always serious,” The Doctor said, and Bill was out the door before he could add anything. He rubbed his forehead, glancing back to the TARDIS console, where the screen had finished evaluating a profile. He resized and expanded it, stepping back as he examined the faces that stared back at him. All children, all missing, all from Central City in 1902. And at the center of them all was –

“Barry Allen,” the Doctor murmured. “What have you gotten yourself into now?”


	19. Callbacks

“How’s the serum coming along, Mr. Allen?”

Barry flinched at Pax’s voice as he entered the basement, refusing to turn around and look. Barry dropped the vial on the table, picking it up again before the liquid could spill out. Pax had allowed him the use of his speed, taken off the metahuman cuffs to speed up production, but he still hadn’t been able to escape. The man he thought he knew as a kind, doddering grandfather had started kidnapping children from all over the city, locking them up in the cells further down in the basement. Barry knew that if he ran, something terrible would happen to them. Something far, far worse than the serum he had just created.

“Ah, excellent,” Pax said, appearing at his shoulder. He grabbed the vial from Barry’s hands, inspecting it as he held it up to the light.

“And you’re sure this will work?”

Barry nodded, eyeing the basement doorway. If he just ran, he could tell Vastra and Kara about all the kidnapped children, and maybe Pax wouldn’t get to do anything in time...

“Mr. Allen.” A cold voice interrupted his thoughts, and he glanced back.

“Still thinking about escape?” Pax asked teasingly. “You know what’ll happen if you try. You can’t be fast enough to save all of them, Barry.”

“Then what,” Barry asked, meeting Pax’s gaze for the first time in what felt like ages. “You’ll keep me trapped here forever, making serums until one of us dies?”

“Once you’re done with this serum,” Pax corrected, handing the vial back to Barry. “I’ll let you go. Of a sorts. Many wealthy donors have expressed a keen interest in owning Central City’s scarlet blur, some with very, very large pockets indeed. But I still haven’t decided yet, Mr. Allen. Ask me again tomorrow – perhaps then.”

“And the children?” Barry asked, his voice strained. A spark flew into Pax’s eyes, and he shook his head.

“You don’t understand. I’ve saved them, Mr. Allen,” he said. “Saved them all from tragedy, from the horrors of war, from their fates themselves. All taken from all across this city.”

“But people have to know,” Barry muttered, a strange sense of deja-vu coming over him. “People must have known that their – their children are down here, stolen away by – by –”

“By me?” The Curator shook his head. “No, of course not. I rescued each and every poor child from the worst conditions you could ever imagine. Not unlike what you and Miss Danvers did, actually. Saving them.”

“We didn’t rip them away from their parents,” Barry’s eyes flashed as he stood up. “We didn’t keep them prisoner, all we did was – give them food, water, actually help them!”

“Careful,” Pax said quietly, raising a steel tipped rod. He pressed a button and it crackled to life with blue lightning. “I daresay you’d like to be skewered with this for the fifth time this week, would you, Barry?”

“Other time-travelers,” Barry stayed where he was, defiant. “The Legends, the Doctor – the barrier around Central City is broken now, they have to know that you just took all these children out of time, that you created time –”

“Aberrations? Yes, my great-grandson told me you might say something like this.” Pax allowed himself a short and easy laugh. “No, dear boy. They are hardly aberrations if everyone believes they have perished already. And now, just for me, and the population of the world, they will live on forever. They will speak truth to the past, to tell everyone what they have suffered and warn others of what occurred long ago. And it will all be due to you and your serum, Mr. Allen. So I believe congratulations are indeed in order.”

“I will never help you,” Barry said evenly. Pax smiled.

“You already have.”

Barry turned and sprinted for the door, wiping the smile off of Pax’s face. He turned the dial up on the lightning rod and shot it at the speedster, blue lightning arcing through the air until it hit Barry in the back. He cried out, falling to the ground.

“I’m afraid you can’t leave yet, Mr. Allen,” Pax chuckled good-naturedly. “We still have a lot to work to finish. And here Commissioner Banner told me of your strong work-ethic. What a shame you’re trying to run out on the job.”

“Kara,” Barry whispered, watching Pax as he walked over to the door, shutting it for the time being. “Kara, if you can hear me – I’m alive, I’m in the basement of the museum, Elliott Pax is making me create freezing serums for him, please, Kara, I’m alive –”

“Get back to work, Allen,” Pax snapped. Barry shakily stood up, wincing as Pax shoved the lightning rod in his face.

“Or you know what will happen if you try to run again,” he added menacingly. He shoved Barry back to the table, forcing him to sit down.

“We must prepare for the donor demonstration tomorrow,” Pax said lightly, some of his smile returning. “Create all the serums ten times. Then we’ll see about letting you live or die.”

***

On the other side of the city, Kara woke up in a cold sweat. She got out of bed and flicked on the light, waking up Alex on the other wise of the room.

“What is it?” Alex asked carefully, eyeing her sister as she walked to the window and stared out into the night. Kara glanced back, grimacing.

“I heard Barry, Alex. I heard his voice, and I –”

“Well, what do you hear now?” Alex sat very still, unable to start hoping again. Kara glanced back out to the night, squeezing her eyes shut and concentrating.

“... Kara, this is Barry. I’m alive, I’m being held in the basement of the museum by Elliott Pax. He’s kidnapped dozens and dozens of children, Kara, you have to save them –”

“Elliott,” Kara breathed, opening her eyes. She turned back to Alex.

“Wake up everybody else. We’re not leaving tomorrow – not by a long shot. We have to rescue these children that Elliott Pax has kidnapped.”

“Why does this sound so familiar?” Alex asked, already grabbing her corset and skirts and pulling them on. “Does this mean the first Elliott learned what to do with his Museum from what his grandfather did to Barry and these kids – after the first Elliott told him what he did to Barry in the present?”

Kara grimaced, getting changed so quickly she didn’t even have to blink.

“The sooner we’re done with all this time travel, the better,” She grumbled, already on her way out the door.

***


	20. Human Uncertainty

“You’re saying you heard Barry’s voice?”

Iris sat on the couch in Vastra’s sitting room, her arms crossed as she stared at Kara, Alex, Courtney and Beth. The Doctor and Bill hung out in the entrance alongside Vastra and Jenny, who looked more and more worried as the conversation went on.

“It was him,” Kara confirmed with a nod. “He was asking for our help, Iris.”

Iris shook her head. “Kara – I don’t understand. It can’t be Barry, whoever you heard –”

“Iris, I know what I heard,” Kara reprimanded. “He’s in the museum, he’s with Elliott – we don’t have any more time.”

“Wait, I’m sorry,” Bill interrupted. “What do you mean, you heard him? Like, in your head?”

“Super-hearing,” Alex said. “Kara’s Supergirl.”

“Wait, seriously?” Bill’s eyes went wide. She shot a look at the Doctor.

“Tell me again why you don’t know any superheroes?”

“Fine,” Iris said, standing up. “I want to believe you, Kara. I really do. But we buried him last week! I don’t know – I can’t go through that again. Not for a third time. If we’re too late –”

She broke off as a modern cellphone started ringing. Everyone looked around until Courtney pulled her phone out of her pocket with a quick, “Sorry – sorry, hang on. Um...”

“How is your phone even working here?” Kara asked with a look. Courtney shrugged, then Beth raised her hand.

“Chuck has a hot-spot in my glasses.”

“Hello?” Courtney pressed a button and answered the phone, the color draining from her face. She fumbled for it, putting it on speaker mode.

“ – at the museum, and we found someone’s jacket,” Yolanda whispered. “I think it might be Barry’s. We’re in the basement –”

“Yolanda,” Iris interrupted sharply. “Facetime us. Now.”

Everyone crowded around the phone to watch while Kara flew out the door to join Yolanda and Rick at the museum. Yolanda pointed the phone towards the darkness of the basement, holding up the dark plaid jacket first, then illuminating the table full of glass vials and serums.

“Do you see Elliott anywhere?” Courtney whispered. Yolanda turned the camera around to face her, shaking her head.

“No one’s here except us,” she said, followed by a sudden _whoosh_ sound. Yolanda and Rick jumped back as Kara landed next to them, fully dressed as Supergirl.

“Good timing,” Rick said, and Kara nodded, already distracted. She walked over to the open cell door, slowly picking the jacket up from off the floor.

“It’s Barry’s,” she said. “And It’s warm. He was here.”

“Look,” Rick said, walking into the cell. He picked up the discarded meta-human cuffs, examining them slowly.

“So where is he now?” Yolanda asked. “And Elliott’s grand dad?”

“Yolanda, look out!” Rick yelled, rushing forward. Pax strode out of the darkness, attacking with the lightning rod. Yolanda jumped out of the way, clawing at the elder man while Rick ran forward to help. Kara caught the phone, shooting a desperate look to the friends.

“Gotta go,” she said, quickly ending the call.

Back in Vastra’s apartment, Courtney looked up at Iris and all the rest.

“We have to help them,” she said, desperate. Bill coughed, giving a pointed look to the Doctor. Everyone followed her gaze to the man leaning against the wall.

“Fine,” he sighed, furrowing his eyebrows. “We can use the TARDIS. Suit up, grab your fancy costumes – whatever it is you do. But we go by my rules.”

“Which are?” Iris asked, her gaze darkening. The Doctor blinked before turning around and leading the way out.

“No weapons.”

***

“What have you done with Barry?” Kara asked, glaring at the old Elliott Pax. Yolanda and Rick flanked her, glowering in anger at the man they hated so much. Or at the man who reminded them of who they would come to hate – at a certain point, Yolanda thought it might be better just to let that one go and concentrate on saving everybody else.

“Why are you so worried about your friend?” Pax smirked. “He’s the fastest man alive, surely he can outrun anything I want to do to him.”

“You’re just as sick as your grandson,” Rick spat. “What has this all been for?”

“You truly want a reason?” Pax asked, his smirk dying. “Or can you not handle villains without some twisted desire to do good in the world, to destroy superheroes for the good of mankind? Or maybe to put them on display, save them so humanity can see their failures in plain sight.”

“We won’t get any answers out of him this way,” Yolanda shook her head. She marched up to Pax, raising her fist.

“Yolanda, don’t,” Kara interrupted. She slowly lowered Yolanda’s arm, looking her in the eyes.

“This won’t solve anything, I swear.”

“It’ll make me feel a whole lot better than I do now,” Yolanda shot back. She looked up at Kara, pain flashing across her face.

“Every single time, Elliott has been one step ahead of us. He’s gotten the upper hand on us, and Barry, every time we’ve tried to rescue him, to rescue anybody! He had Rick and I trapped, Miss Danvers, do you know what that felt like?! Do you know what any of that felt like, when Barry told us to run, to save ourselves, to find out that we were the reasons he ended up dying in the STAR Labs parking lot?!”

“Yolanda,” Rick said softly. But Yolanda shook her head, shooting him a fierce glare.

“Don’t deny it. We weren’t there for him like he was there for us. But more importantly, we weren’t there to end Elliott and his evil brain when anyone needed it the most.”

She drew back her fist again, staring into Elliott’s cold, unflinching eyes. An icy smile spread across his face.

“An admiral speech, Miss Montez. One might even say heroic. But here you are, threatening an old man just to get revenge when dozens of children lie trapped just upstairs, along with your friend who you claim you want to rescue. Tell me, is this really the right course of action here?”

“Don’t listen to him, Yolanda,” Rick growled. “End it.”

“No,” Kara cut in. “Yolanda, please. You told me what happened with Brainwave. I know all of it. This time, you really do have a choice, I swear. Please, make the right one.”

“We can’t give him the chance to hurt anyone else,” Yolanda said, trembling.

“We won’t,” Kara whispered. She took the meta-human cuffs from Rick, rushing forward to imprison the older Elliott Pax.

“We’ll decide what to do with him as soon as we rescue Barry and the children,” Kara resolved, looking the members of the JSA in their eyes. “I promise you – he will face justice.”

She winced, turning to listen to something up above their heads – a great wheezing, groaning sound that sounded like a dozen elephants that suddenly came to a halt. The TARDIS had arrived, and with it, all their friends.

“You’re too late,” Elliott teased them. “You and your friends – you’re all too late.”

“To stop what, you?” Kara asked with a toss of her head. “I think we’ve already done that.”

The door to the basement flew open, and in ran Alex.

“We found him,” she said, panicked. “We found Barry, and the children. But you need to come quickly.”

Both Yolanda and Rick moved to go, but Kara placed a hand on Yolanda’s shoulder.

“We’ll be right there,” she promised, and Alex ran back. Yolanda tore free from Kara’s grasp, throwing her a horrified glance.

“What do you mean we’ll be right there, we have to go rescue them!”

“I need to make sure you’re all right,” Kara said softly. Yolanda’s eyes sparked with fury.

“I don’t need anyone else telling me how to feel or how to act,” she spat. “Do you realize how much Elliott – any of them – has taken from us? From me?”

“Yolanda –”

“I don’t think you do,” Yolanda glared. “Otherwise you wouldn’t try giving some pep talk or trying to convince me I made the right choice while innocent people are in danger. Because I will never, ever be convinced that I made the right choice to let this monster go.”

“That’s what makes us better than him,” Kara said, the steel returning to her voice. “I’m not convinced either, Yolanda – I’d do anything to make sure you, the whole JSA, Barry, all my friends – are safe and home at the end of the day. But Elliott – he’s convinced that he’s made the right choice, all the time. He knows he has. But this – this uncertainty, this confusion, everything and anything you’re feeling right now – that’s what makes you human. I promise.”

Yolanda opened her mouth, almost on the verge of saying something more. Then she shut her mouth and turned to the stairs.

“Come on,” she said, leading the way. “Let’s just end this, once and for all.”

***


	21. Cheating Time and Death

THE MUSEUM

CENTRAL CITY, 1902

Iris ran out of the TARDIS first, her heart jumping to her throat as she saw the rubble that had destroyed part of the museum. She quickly turned away, her anger replacing her fear as she realized what a monster Elliott had been – pretending to show them Barry’s body buried underneath all that stone, standing by her at the funeral – the fake funeral. She clenched her fists, quickly turning her attention on another part of the museum, blinking back tears.

What she saw stopped her in her tracks.

Iris approached the glass box slowly, hardly daring to believe what – who – she saw inside. Up until now she hadn’t believed Kara, not really. She’d wanted to see with her own eyes, and now, finally, she had proof. Barry was alive, moving at an impossible speed until he was nothing but a blur inside the box.

She placed her hands on the glass case, tears welling in her eyes.

“Barry,” she whispered. “Barry, I’m here. I’m here, I swear. You can stop running now.”

Barry’s eyes flew open. He gasped, meeting Iris’ eyes.

“I never thought I’d see you again,” he whispered back, his voice muffled. Iris put a hand over her mouth.

“Kara,” she yelled, and Supergirl flew over. “Please, get him out of there.”

“No, don’t!” the Doctor ran out of the TARDIS, followed by Bill, his hand outstretched in a warning. “Step away, both of you – Barry Allen, you can’t stop using your speed.”

“Who is this guy?” Barry asked, confused as he sat up. The Doctor raised his sonic screwdriver, emitting a sonic pulse. Barry cried out, falling back down again and starting to vibrate once more.

“What did you do to him, you’re hurting him!” Kara yelled, and the Doctor winced.

“He’s generating power, more power than the city needs – Pax must’ve hooked Barry Allen and his speed into the city’s grid somehow, replacing all the light, all the power with his own energy source – if he stops using his speed, millions will die.”

“No, Doctor,” Bill whispered, grabbing onto the Doctor’s arm. “He’s not powering the whole city – look.”

Everyone turned to look. Alex had uncovered another display case, this one even more horrifying than Barry’s. This case held –

“The children,” Iris whispered, staring at all of them. “Barry’s speed is keeping them alive in there.”

“And vice-versa, I’m afraid,” The Doctor said, walking up to the glass walls. The children stared back at him, one placing her hand against the glass. The Doctor put his hand up, then broke away and turned back to the superheroes.

“There’s a way,” he said quickly. “If we find the connecting wires, the two ends – if we unplug them both from Barry and the children’s cases at the same time, then –”

“Then we could hopefully cancel out any polarizing effects,” Iris said, breathless. She caught a quizzical glance from Beth.

“What? I listen to Cisco and Caitlin once in a while.”

“Here,” Kara said, standing over by Barry, the heavy wire already in her hands. “Alex, take the other one, it’s –”

“No,” Courtney interrupted with a glance at the rest of the JSA. “It should be us. Barry saved us once before – more times than we can count.”

“She’s right,” Yolanda said thickly. “We’ll do it.”

“On three,” Kara said, and the teenagers ran to their places. “One –”

“Two,” the Doctor directed.

“Three!” Iris shouted. Kara and Yolanda severed the connection, an explosion of light rattling everyone. When the dust settled, and Iris’ vision cleared, she finally started to cry.

Barry sat up in the wreckage of the glass cage, still as a normal person could be. He stared down at his hands in wonder, smiling as Iris threw her hands around his neck. He turned to embrace her, laughing.

“I’m okay,” he said, pressing his face into her shoulder. “I’m here. I’m okay.”

“I already told you never to do this again,” Iris hiccupped. “I mean it this time, Barry. Never, ever again –”

“There you go,” the Doctor was saying softly, helping each child after the other walk out from the shattered glass case. Miraculously, no one had been hurt. “It’s alright, you’re safe now. There you go.”

All of a sudden, a great wheezing noise picked up. Everyone looked as another TARDIS materialized at the bottom of the museum steps, finally coming to a stop. The door creaked open, and out burst Cisco, Frost, Nash, Ralph and the Doctor herself.

“Finally!” Cisco yelled in triumph, raising his hands in a victory punch to the air. “We made it through!”

“What, all of you?” Barry couldn’t help but laugh. Cisco grinned, pointing at Barry before running over and grabbing him in a hug.

“What do you mean, ‘all of you’, as if we wouldn’t all rescue my best friend from certain death –”

“Come on, everybody in,” the Doctor said, waving all the heroes forward with her hand. “Back to 2021, in, all of you. Let’s leave Elliott and any sort of museum in the past where they belong.”

“And we’ll take the children home,” the Doctor said, folding his arms as he walked up to his future self.

“So.”

The Doctor rocked back on her heels.

“So.”

“I expect I’ll come to know all these – superheroes?”

The Doctor nodded. “Earth’s Finest,” she said, nodding at Kara as she entered the TARDIS.

“So that’s what they’re calling them,” the Doctor scoffed. “I’d watch out for mentions of an iPhone in 1902 if I were you – “

“Yeah, sorry,” Courtney said sheepishly, raising her phone. “That was us. But in our defense, we wouldn’t have found Elliott without facetiming Yolanda and Rick –”

“Here,” Rick said, shoving the man into the TARDIS. The Doctor tutted, frowning as she watched Rick push Elliott further in.

“Put him in the library,” she called over her shoulder. “And lock the door. And tell Barry and Iris to move their rooms as far away as they can get!”

“We will, promise,” Barry said, his arm around Iris as they walked up to both Doctors and both TARDISes. “No more death-defying moments, I swear.”

“You say that,” Iris warned, giving him a look. “We both know you can’t promise anything.”

“Look,” Barry held up his hands. “I –”

The world suddenly slowed down. He turned, catching movement out of the corner of his eye. Barry zeroed in on a third TARDIS, rematerializing in an instant. Out walked the Teenage Elliott, a modern-day gun in his hands. Barry watched in horror as he aimed, and the bullets fired straight for Bill and the other Doctor and the kids –

He moved without thinking, deftly catching the bullets one by one, almost flying through the air as he ran to protect them all. Barry turned back, dropping the bullets to the ground. But then he felt a sharp pain in his side, another hand on his back. Barry gasped, the world speeding back into regular time as he watched Elliott draw out the knife from his side, heard the villain’s whisper in his ear as he fell to the ground.

“I told you, Barry,” he hissed. Barry gasped again, crying out as Elliott stabbed him again. He looked up, Iris’ yell echoing in his ears as she ran forward to try and stop the madman. “Time has a way of happening in the end. Your speed healing can’t undo what’s already happened – what should have been your end by my hands. No matter what, this is your final moment.”

Barry slid forward, everything happening in slow motion around him – the rest of his friends running out of the TARDIS, Cisco pointing the bazooka gun at Elliott while both Doctors reached out to stop him. Courtney, Yolanda, Rick and Beth looking at him with terror in their eyes as he collapsed. But he kept his eyes trained on Iris, watching as she produced a rod with blue lightning crackling around it from her bag. The Reality Rod.

Barry and Iris locked eyes. Iris seemed unnaturally calm, her hair whipping around her face as wind from a forming wormhole picked up behind her.

“Iris,” Barry rasped, struggling to stand. “Iris, no. You can’t – it’s like Elliott said – what if this is really how it’s supposed to end?”

“When will you trust, Barry,” Iris said softly, keeping her voice as even as possible even though the sight of her dying husband pained her to her core. “That Elliott will never decide what time has in store for either of us?”

She grabbed the Reality Rod with both hands, closing her eyes while fragments of memory and time once again jumbled together, rearranging themselves into moments and pieces that she could control. She saw Elliott take the knife from Barry’s side, saw the bullets retreat and Elliott re-enter his TARDIS. All she had to do was let go and she and Barry would be about to enter their Doctor’s TARDIS, all easy smiles and hope for the future –

But a scream broke her concentration. She opened her eyes, mouth dropping open in horror as she watched blue lightning arc from Barry’s body and land in the Reality Rod, like it was sucking the life out of him. She let go of the rod, time catching up to them all at once – the two Doctors talking to each other when she and Barry were supposed to be entering the TARDIS. But the rod clattered to the ground, falling from her grasp as Iris stumbled forward.

Barry lay in a heap on the ground, blue lightning or not nowhere to be found. Iris fell beside him, shaking him once, twice. But he was cold to the touch.

“No,” she said, desperately throwing a glance over her shoulder to the Doctors, who approached her and Barry first. “No – no, this can’t happen again. Elliott is not right, okay? He doesn’t control when Barry does and doesn’t die –”

“Iris,” the Doctor said quietly as she placed a light hand on the other woman’s shoulder. “Iris, it’s not your fault –”

“Of course it isn’t my fault,” Iris snapped back, shooting a glare in the Doctor’s direction. “We all know who’s fault this is, and for once it isn’t Barry’s, it isn’t mine, it’s Elliott Pax and his entire quest for a pointless revenge against my –”

“Husband?” Barry’s voice broke through her rant, and Iris turned to look, hardly daring to believe her eyes. Barry sat up, coughing, his eyes watering and all the breath leaving him as Iris wrapped him in a hug. The grey-haired Doctor replaced his sonic screwdriver inside his pocket, standing up.

“Ice cold,” he said to the other Doctor as she threw him a confused look, immediately understanding as he said what happened. “Not dead. His speed and body reacted as the remnants of the Reality Rod were drawn out, resulting in –”

“A frozen, death-like state,” the Doctor finished for her past self. She nodded, rocking back on her heels.

“The last thing we need is more death for Barry Allen,” she said, and Barry glanced up from where he sat with Iris, hands intertwined.

“Tell me about it,” he said, mustering up a wry smile. Iris helped him to his feet, flinching as another TARDIS’ sound echoed around the empty museum hall. Bill herded the rest of the children inside her Doctor’s blue police box as Barry prepared to run to stop Elliott once and for all. But he didn’t need to. The TARDIS doors opened, and out walked Elliott. Barry watched as the teenager collapsed to the ground, stunned by a huge pulse.

Barry whirled around, gaping in shock at the bazooka gun in Cisco’s hands. Cisco simply grinned, cocking the gun and shrugging.

“What? Somebody else had to save you for once, didn’t I?”

“Come here,” Barry laughed in relief, pulling in Cisco and Iris for hugs. He pulled away a minute later, holding both at arm’s length.

“You’ve done so much for me, you guys didn’t –”

“Realize? Didn’t have to?” Cisco rolled his eyes, clapping Barry on the back. “Give us a break, Bar. And give someone else the chance to be a hero.”

“We can save the speeches and everything for the real party when we get back home,” Iris winked, kissing Barry on the cheek. “For now –”

“Let’s just be glad I’m alive,” Barry laughed again, unable to help himself. “And that Elliott is...”

He glanced down to the Teenage Elliott lying passed out on the ground, then to the Doctor’s TARDIS, where the other Elliott was imprisoned somewhere in its labyrinth of rooms. He looked back at Iris, a shadow darkening his face.

“Is it really over?” he whispered. Iris placed her arms around his neck, kissing him sweetly on the lips.

“Yes,” she said honestly, looking into Barry’s eyes. “It is, Barry. I promise. Do you believe me?”

“I never stopped believing,” he said, his voice falling to a whisper as he held Iris close. “Never.”

***


	22. Loose Ends

***

Moments later, both TARDISes spun through space and time, leaving behind 1902 Central City, Vastra, Jenny and the whole mess for good.

“Make sure you never come back,” Vastra had said as she released Barry and Iris from a hug, a dark look in her eyes.

“I mean it. If I see either of you back here, I will do much worse than what you did to startle poor Jenny throughout the last few months.”

“I literally can’t tell if you’re joking,” Barry admitted, and Vastra hugged him again.

“It has been an honor,” she said, then looked at Iris. “What would you like us to tell the girls at the telegraph agency?”

“Oh,” Iris said, glancing up at Barry. “Tell them... we went on a very long holiday trip. I think they’ll understand.”

“And the Commissioner?” Vastra raised a brow as she looked at Barry, who frowned, pointing down the street.

“Uh... isn’t that him there?”

“Allen!” Commissioner Alfred Cornelius Arnold Banner ran down the street, waving his hand to apparently stop them from leaving. “Allen! You’re alive?! Where is –”

“Right here,” Barry said, stepping aside so the JSA could push the imprisoned elder Elliott Pax out of the TARDIS and into Banner’s hands. “You’ll find a full docket of evidence and a list of his crimes on my desk, Commissioner.”

“Thank you, Allen,” the Commissioner snapped with a nod. “I take it I will not be seeing you or Central City’s red blur around anymore.”

“Uh, no sir,” Barry said awkwardly, wondering how his boss had guessed the truth. “But I put a few recommendations for your new hires. I think you should consider them.”

Commissioner Banner stuck out his hand, inviting Barry to shake it.

“A pleasure, Mr. Allen. Mrs. West-Allen. We’ll take care of Pax for you.”

“On the condition you release all the debtors,” Barry said quickly, and Iris looked at him askance. “All the people who were wrongly convicted of crimes they didn’t commit, and all the poor, and the needy, and start trying to help them.”

“I’ll think about it,” Banner glowered, and released Barry’s hand. “Till next time, Allen.”

“Next time,” Barry nodded, and Banner and Pax walked away for the last time. He breathed a sigh of relief as Iris patted him on the shoulder.

“I wonder if he’ll do it,” she said quietly. “I wonder if he’ll really listen.”

“Guess we’ll just have to find that out for ourselves,” Barry said, inhaling deeply. Vastra and Jenny stepped aside as the Doctor poked her head out of the TARDIS.

“Well? Goodbyes all made, properly this time? Come on! No time to waste here.”

So Barry and Iris returned inside the TARDIS, the blue box dematerializing from 1902 for the last time. Barry looked around at all of his friends and family, and smiled. He didn’t want to wipe it away.

He stumbled as the TARDIS shook and wavered, Iris grabbing onto his arm for safety.

“What’s happening, Doctor?” Courtney yelled.

“Looks like we’re being sucked into another wormhole!” yelled Beth. Barry groaned, and Iris wrapped her hand around his arm.

“I’m not leaving you,” she said, staring up at him. Barry nodded, holding onto her.

“I know.”

***

Wind picked up on the side of a grassy hill, a long road stretching out in front. Barry stumbled out of the TARDIS as the wormhole died, trying to get his bearings.

“Guys,” he called back inside as Iris joined him. “Guys, this isn’t Central City –”

“Who are you?”

Barry turned, freezing in place. A car lay overturned in the road, the wreckage smoking. A little red-headed boy stood next to it, his face streaked with tears and dirt and grime. He wore a small cardigan and a red bow-tie.

“We’re...” Barry trailed off as next to him, Iris sucked in a quick breath. “Uh, we’re...”

“This is it,” Iris whispered, tightening her hand on Barry’s shoulder. “This is when he finds out who we are.”

“Look, we – we didn’t do this, Elliott,” Barry stammered, and the little boy’s eyes narrowed.

“How do you know my name?”

“Barry, Iris,” the Doctor said, sticking her head outside and surveying the scene. “Get back inside now.”

“Did you do this?” the young Elliott Pax started to cry. “Did you kill my parents?”

“No,” Barry said quietly, not moving from his place. “No, we didn’t, Elliott, I promise –”

“I know a Barry and Iris too,” the little boy said, his eyes flashing. Iris tugged on Barry’s arm, pulling him back inside the TARDIS. “You’re exactly how I thought they’d be grown-up!”

“Elliott, please,” Iris begged, stepping in front of Barry to try and shield him from whatever the little boy wanted to do. “I know you’re scared. I know you don’t know what to do except think about your Museum. But this – this wasn’t us, I swear.”

“Iris, it’s all right,” Barry said quietly, taking her hand. “I think – think this is what’s supposed to happen.”

“Supposed to – no!” Iris turned on him with a yell. “Barry, I’m not going to let Elliott Pax ruin our lives and imprison you in a museum just because he thinks we killed his parents!”

“So you did kill them,” little Elliott Pax said. Iris looked back at him, desperation shining in her eyes.

“Elliott, we –”

“I hate you!” Elliott screamed, grabbing a rock from the side of the road. He threw it at Barry and Iris, landing at their feet. “I hate you! Just you watch – I’m going to make sure it all comes true. All of what you said!”

“Elliott, no!” Iris called, but the little boy had already run away. Barry placed a hand on her arm, stopping her from going after him.

“Iris, it’s alright. It – it already happened. I’m safe. We all are.”

Iris slowly turned away from the scene, facing Barry and the Doctor. She placed a hand on her husband’s back, nodding.

“Let’s go. Back to our present.”

“On it,” said the Doctor, disappearing back inside the TARDIS. Iris followed her. Barry lingered for a moment, then pulled out his cellphone. He dialed.

“Yeah, hello? There’s an accident to report –”


	23. The Finish Line

STAR LABS

CENTRAL CITY

2021

ONE MONTH LATER

“Still visiting on your off-hours, are you, Barry?”

Barry leaned up against the containment cell in STAR Labs, actively doing everything he could to not look at Teenage Elliott’s smug grin. He was the only real prisoner left in STAR Labs, the only one left to sit in the containment cell. Next week he’d be transferred to ARGUS, and then no one on Team Flash would ever have to see the Curator again. At least, that was Barry’s hope.

“I wanted to give you something,” Barry said, picking himself up off the wall. He reached into the bag at his feet, noticing his hands trembling as he picked up the dead and dormant Reality Rod.

“Still scared of me, I see?” Elliott sneered, and Barry glanced up, his face impassive. He held up the Reality Rod, noting how Elliott unconsciously moved away.

He was afraid, too.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Barry said. “If you knew anything about me, you’d know I wouldn’t.”

Barry hit a button and a small compartment in the containment cell opened. He slid the Reality Rod inside over to Elliott, who stood up as his sneer grew wider.

“What’s this for? Are you begging to die?”

“It’s been reprogrammed,” Barry explained, trying to keep his face blank and expressionless. “If you touch it, you’ll be able to go to the one place you dreamed of as a kid.”

Elliott’s face darkened. “The Museum.”

“You’ll have all the exhibits, the Woolly Mammoth – all copies of everything and everyone you had,” Barry continued. “Except for the real people.”

“And what’s the catch here?”

“You’ll never be able to leave,” Barry returned, finally looking his archnemesis in his hateful eyes. “It’s a one-way trip, Elliott.”

“What happens if I don’t take this opportunity of a lifetime?”

“You’ll be transferred to ARGUS, imprisoned in a maximum-security facility for the rest of your life,” Barry said. “No way of escaping there, either – but in the Museum you’ll at least be comfortable.”

Barry turned his back on the teen, taking a deep breath as he prepared to run away. A question stopped him in his tracks.

“Why?”

“Because –” Barry nearly choked on the words, forcing himself to meet Elliott’s burning gaze. “Because you don’t deserve anything like what you did to me. Even though you did all that, you’re – you’re not a monster, Elliott. You weren’t at first. You just –”

“Took the path you didn’t,” Elliott finished, walking up to the glass. He pressed a hand against the wall, staring down Barry.

“I’ll go to this new Museum, Barry. I’ll stay for a while.”

“Good,” Barry said, turning away again. He was halfway to the doors when Elliott’s next statement pierced him to his core.

“But I’ll find a way out. I swear I will. And when I do – I promise you, I will visit you first. And I will make Iris watch as I slit your throat. After all – time has a way of happening in the end.”

Barry turned back to face him, anger finally igniting in his eyes.

But Elliott was gone. So was the Reality Rod.

Barry was alone.

“Hey.”

He jumped, glancing to the doorway. Iris leaned up against the entrance, arms crossed across her chest. Barry went to her, leaning into her arms.

“So – he took the deal.”

“He said he’d be back,” Barry admitted. Iris met his eyes, placing her thumb on his cheek. She tried to smile.

“Don’t they all?”

“Barry, we got an emergency up on 4th and –” Cisco stopped as he ran into the hallway, his urgency dying as he looked between Barry’s worried eyes and Iris’ concern.

“We good?”

“Elliott took the deal,” Barry said. “He promised he’d be back.”

“Did you mention the part where he’s gonna be trapped for all eternity?” Cisco quirked a brow, and Barry nodded.

“Well, good luck to him finding a way around that,” Cisco scoffed, and glanced back to his best friend.

“You ready to save the city, Flash?”

Barry took a deep breath, quickly smiling at Iris.

“Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

“Great. We got a meta-human up on –”

Barry was out the door before he could finish his sentence. He ran and ran and ran, embracing his freedom. Maybe Elliott would come back. Maybe it’d take him years to get over his fear of museums, to erase the past’s nightmares.

But Barry had time.

He had all the time in the world.

And so, he ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for reading, I really enjoyed writing this! <3 would love to hear everyone's thoughts on the ending, thank you!


End file.
